Rasatala Or The Under-world

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DEPARTMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY

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Calcutta Oriental Senes, No, 20. h., 12 . .

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Rasatala or the Under-world

8 S i

NUN DOLAL DEY M.A., B.L.
author of

The Gtographical Dictionary of Ancient
and Medieval India, Civilization
in Ancient India dr’C. &^c.

g- 1

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ENTRAL ARCMAEOLOGIGaU
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PREFACE

It has always been rny belief that many
of the accounts of places and peoples as
given in the Epics and the Pura^-as are
based upon facts, though they have been
greatly mixed up with fiction and mytho-
logy, The story of Rasatala is one of
those accounts, and the general agreement
of all the ancient Hindu works in describing
the region and its inhabitants with a
certain amount of superstitious respect
and fear has confirmed me in my opini^
that the original tradition concerning theifi
is based upon reality. In the following
pages I have placed my views on the
subject, and have tried to identify the
countries and their inhabitants so far as the
present materials would allow. I desire to
acknowledge my indebtedness to the very
interesting work entitled the JEJarly History
of the Huns by Dr. J. J. Modi of Bombay,

[ ]

as it has proved very suggestive to me, and
also to my nephew Dr. Narendra Nath
Law, M.A., B.L., P.E.S., PH.n., for the many
useful suggestions and the help which I
have received from him during the progress
of this work.

19, Gopal Bose Lane,
Calcutta.

Jfay, 12 , 1923 .

Nundolal Dey

CONTENTS

Rasatala is not a myth ; it is a forgotten,
country. — Meaning of Kasatala. — The coun-
try of Easafcala. — Confirnaatory evidence
from the Hindu works. — Sapta Patala or
seven spheres of Basatala. — Huns and
Scythians were Turanians, — Identification
of the names of Nagas with those of Hunnic
tribes Sses and others. — Taksaka. — Elapatra.
— ITgraka and other Nagas. — Subahu and
other Su tribes. — Names of Garuda, —
Animal shapes of Scythian converts.— Fight
between the Elephant and the Tortoise.—
Sanskrit names of serpents are almost all
Hunnic names : NSgas and other names. —
Pacini derived from Paij.i. — Paijiis were a
non^ Aryan tribe. — Names of serpents in
Sahfcit , were borrowed mostly from the
Turanian language.— Sakadvipa is the geo-
graphical name of Rasatala. — Aryans. — '
Religion of Seythic tribes.— Other inhabi-

[ ii ]

tants of Rasatala. — Danavas. — Daityas,' —
Asuras. — RSksasas and Yaksas. — Siddhas.
Gandh arvas. — Kinnaras. — Bhogavatl — Ai§-
Eoa, — Manimayl. — VaruijLapiira. — Bali-Slaya.
— Patalapura. — Kama^Iyaka. — Bhuipkara or
Pu skara. — BibhSva ti . — The 0 xua. — The
Jaxarfces. — The Zarafshan. — Meru Parvata,
— Syama-giri. DurgS-saila or TrikOta
mountain. — Kusesaya. — Varu^a Hrada. —
The Sapta or Seven Dvipas and Seven
Sagaras. — ISTames of Sagaras are Turanian
words absorbed in the Sanskrit language. —
Identity of Easatala and Scythia. — Tura-
nian or Kunnic settlements in India. Inter-
marriages. — Association of Nagas with the
serpents. — Kitter’s view of PStala.

f

OKN'I'l! A I, A A KO i ,OG i.!!.Ab

l ABH a::y k io\y dblhi.

‘ Are.

Call

lasatala or the Underworld

Is Basatala a riayth,— a creation of the
poet’s brain I Have tbe seven spheres of
Basatala below tbe earth been invented as a
counterpart of the seven Jjokai
iK^^a^^yth • worlds^ above the earth 1
it is a for- The name of KasStala., or

synonym Pstala, occurs in al-
most all the ancient Hindu
xvorks of importance, professing or preten-
ding to give an account of historical events
of ancient times. If Basatala he an idld
phantasm or a mere figment of the poet’s
imagination, the writers of different periods
would not have tried to keep it -alive. Easa-
tala has been peopled with serpents, demons,

1 Padma Purina^ Sr8ti-Khan4a, ch. 32 : —
BhulokoHha Bhuvarlokdk , Sfuarlako' thu Mahar
Jandhi Tapah Satya^d saptaiU devalokuh pra-

I

2

rasatala or the under-world

birds, and animals, invested with the physi-
cal and mental qualities of a human being.
Sesa Naga, the king of the serpents, is des-
cribed^ as seated upon a throne with all the
paraphernalia of royalty about him. His
head is bedecked with a crown, his ears have
pendants, and his arms extend up to his
knees, He is clothed in black, and has, on
his two sides, attendants waving the fly-
whisks. He is also surrounded by his
ministers and courtiers. He does not hiss,
Wt talks like a human being, and talks
wisdom like a veritable Veda-Vyasa®. There
were demons, though ferocious, they were
brave and generous. Bali, for instance,
was so generous that he gave away every
thing he possessed to the poor and the
Brahmaijas^. They lived in cities, which
in beauty could vie with any “city of
heaven*', containing houses, gardens and

1 Harwc^ai ch. 82.

2 P admit ch. i.

3 Harivm^a^ ch. 220.

rasatala qr the under-world ^

palRces ; and Hira^jrapura, the capital of
the Daityas, has beeti.^desorijjed as lophing
beautiful with roads and gateways specially
prepared by l^rahmlt for the Danavas^ * The
deiu,ona did not wander in forests and Ijve in
oaves like the primitive man, but they
possessed various amenities of civilisation.
The Suparna (or (^aruj.a) birds wer;e human
beings to all intents and purposes^ except
for their beaks and wings®. The Surabhis
or the cow-tribe lived in KasStala, and they
could speak like human beings and prophesy
future events®. In spite of paucity of infor-
mation we have enough evidence to conclude
that BasStalaris a reminiscence of a primeval
age when the Indo- Aryans lived with the
Iranians in their ancient home in Central
Asia called Ariana by Strabo, which is the

1 MahT\bkafataiVd^m' 2 axYd>ith. 172.

2

3 tJdyoga, ch. 10 r ; Marka^eva F.^

cb . 2 1.

4

liAS^TAtA bk THE UHDER-WOKLD

of This Aii?«

^aharvlja, ’which means the Aryan s^eed'*
evidently Aa^eth^jan or Azerbijan which
#as originally a province of ancient Media
or ^*Mad*, as it was called, the Uttara (north)
Madra of the FnrSnas, and now a province
of Persia. The river DSitya, which flowed
through it, hi the river Aras which divided
Media from Armenia. Some authodties
consider Media to be the original home of
the Aryans^; ‘Herodotus also says, **These
Modes #ere called anciently by all people
Arian^®.’' Azerbaijan and the countries
tO' the north Were therefore known as Arya
of the ]dg- Veda and Hara of the Bible.

• I ‘^The first of the good lands aod ixjuntrief,
which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was Airyana-Vaeja
by the good river Daitya”, Vendidad,' ch. i see
Samd Books of the East^ vol, IV, 4 ; Max Miiller's
Science of Language (1873), vpL I, 227,

2 Dwighf s Modern PhUotogVy vol. b p, 30,

3 Bistory (f Herodotus ^ translated by Rawlin*
son, vol. II, p. 145.

RASITALA OR THR UNPER-WORLO

la lateir times* tlxe boua4arios of Arlapa,
were extended to tlie north of the valleys
the Oxus and the fTaxarte^* and to the east
as far as the Indas^^ by eoequ^st from the
Scythians or Hitnnic tribes who helpngedJw
the Taraeian raee. There can be no donblr
that either difiereaee of opinion abont reff*
giois matters, jjerhaps when the schism re^
garding the sapremacy pf Varuna in the
hierarchy of tlj^ gods originated, as indicated;
by the promiscuoEs applieation, of the woardf^
Sara and Asura to Yarana in the earlier
portions of the l^-rveda^i or the fraquent;
broads mjd cfopredatibns of the neighbor inf
barbarous tribes* i or perhaps both imp^lbei
the Indo-Aryan^ tlm ancestors of
Hindus and the l^|lrais._. to morale

m In4l0'- ^ ?boy brough^t,..w|th tho§|
thp, mempry , of . these, inv^mni,, . ..wars^ .

.{Jgunihiep'; ^

Strabo, vol. Ifl, p. . r: * ^

S:v lY, 9 ; M^dongll's

Jlistofy^cf

6

RASaTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

oppressions,. to wMeh they were fre(|uently
subjected by the batbaroua tribes Surrouhd-
ing the plaee where they lived with the
Iranians. 3>aity4a, Banavas, Asnras, and'
Ks^as^ are mentioned in the works of the
Vedic period and in snbseqheht works down
to the latest Pura^iia. Though the worA
*‘KasStala” does hot appear in the Tedas,
yet the word must have been handed down
by oral tradition, like the "hymns of the
Vedas, as the abode of the people called'
‘^Demons” and “Setpehts'’. The word JS>as$
appears' in the Rg-veda®> aud the word
jBhsteM in the ESraSyatia*. In the latter
work, it is described as the abode of the
Baityas, BSnavas, Surabhi cows, ahd NSgas
(Serpents), sMuated below the earth, Bui
though placed below the earth, KaslUala'
ddet not appiear theii tO hkve beeh divided

1 For Nagas, see B¥ihmd^, If, 2,

J ^ J2 Mvalayana GrhydS^tth^^\\i ^t» ?

2 JBg-veda, I; lt2, 12 ; V, 53, 9 ; X yj , 0-

3 ^ ,

rasatala or the under-world. 7

into seven splieres, but the KamSyana des-
cribes it as a flat country containing citien,
palaces, lakes and mountains. In the MahS-
bhSrata^ and in subsequent works, we see it
divided into seven spheres. The story of
Ras§|ala has a substratum of truth under-
lyii^ it, around which has grown up a
body, of fiction in course of time. The
real signification of the word has been lost,,
and the facts; and concepts connected with
the country and its people have been,
forgotten. A whole country has been turned^
into a yisionary land peopled with creatures of
fantastio shapes, and of uncouth descriptions.

The lexicographical meaning, of BasSta%
is adhohhuva%a, that is ‘‘below the world” .

The' place has evidently: been
Meting of (iivifled into seven spberes im
asa a a. jjj^itation of the seven spheres

above the earth, peopled with beings of

I Udyega> ch. ipi

s0tam^, prthivltuk^, Yairafk

bhir matm gavufft^mftasumbhava. '

8

RASXTAIiA OR- tHR '0KfDER-WORLi>

differeirfe ihafiefe aad figures, indicatiiig thal*
they did u^fe belong, to the Aryan raee.

Bdt in order to ascertain which country
Was naeant by KasSfcala^ we must examine the
word rfcself. coniists

two words JBasS and
Bm& k mentioned in the ^tg-
teda^ as the name of a river. It is the same
as the Kangha of the Aioes^ia which has
been identified by Profs. Keith and Mac-
donell with the Jaxarfces^, ?This i<

RASiTALA 9R THE UNDER-WOLRD

word iTaZa ia tEe Sanakritised form of
'^yhioh is another name for the Huns. R:?**
J. J. Modi in hxs> Marly Eistor^ of ihe Mmi
aayS, ‘‘the Huns were called Te-le or
^ril-le”^ The oompoimd word
therefore means the country on the banks
of the Jaxartes where the Huns resided,
;|ik.coQrding to the Hindu works 'Rasatala has
h#h a general and a specific aignific^ottJ
In its general aoese it means the whole
region called “Rasatala” which is below th&
^rth» and in its specific sense it means onf
of the ^even spheijes into which it is divided,
^ rneans the world, Rasatala in its

general sense means the “world” or the
country of the Hons, that; is T^tairy pr
Qenttal Asia ■ inelnding Turkestan and as
the name of a partieukr “sphere” or prt|’
yinee of that country; it is the yajley of

I xxlv (1916-1^^^^^

tead of TU4e Deguigncs has Tie4e io \dw,04aire
HunSi Tome ii, p. . 2 ^ 2 .
typogra^caln#*^^ for T{^4^ . i.

10

rasatala or ths un]:>br-\wrrd

^axartes wih4re the HiiilS resMedi Tlieref
citii be lie doiibt that BasStala originally
meant the eoiintry of the Huns*

' The identification of BasStala with Gen-
trel Asia, including Tartary and Turkestan,
" ‘ is confirmed by the very works

iory^eyb^" ^hich place it below the earth,

-dence from The BSmSyana says that

wotS B avaga, after conquering thb
NSgas and DSnavas of BasS^
tala., emerged through the very hole through
which he had entered it, and passed the
night on the-Bumeru mountain^ ; in other
Words, BatStala was close to the SuhierU
mountain. The MahSbhSrata® and the
Matsya PurSiaa^ distinctly say that Metu
dt Sumeru mountain is in Slkadvlpa,'
It is also stated in the MahSbhSrata* that
#arhda, who lived in BiStala, having caught

' ' I 'i25^5yd^i^Uttaii’a,''chs, 14 , ' '

i^hisma, rr;'"': /■ - - ^

4 Mhk.j Adi, Ch* 30 ^ : Udyoga> ch. 100, ; ; ; ;

RASXTALA OR THE UNDER-’tVO'RLD

II

an elephant and a tortoise with his
nails, wanted to eat ■ them, and acoord-
ingly sat upon the branoh of a Vata
tree {Ficu& Iridkd).' The branoh broke.
Some jfelakhilya (pigmy)' r§is were perforin-
ing asceticism on that' branoh. In order
to save the lives of those r§is, Garada took
up the branoh with his beak and flew to
the Gnndhamadana mountain where his
father KaSyapa was performing asceticism
to ask his advice regarding a suitable place
where he could eat the elephant and the
tortoise with convenience. At the inter-
cession of ElaSyapa the pigmy rsis left the
branch on the Gandhamadana mountain and
went to perform asceticism on the
laya. Se§a, the kii% of the NSga&i also
started on a pilgrimage from GandhamS-
dana, and then visited Badarikyraiha in the
Himalaya^. The Harivamsa also places
IfesStala near the GandhamSdana and tbe
Mand^ moHntains^,, The western portion

36, ^

2 //ItmVamSa, chs. 218, 219. ‘

12 RASiWA OR THE HNOER-WORLD

of the Himalaya from Garwal was called by
the aame of Gandhamadana ; hence Gandh^
rtdftna and the Himalaya were situate^
to tb© east of Sumeru Parvata, and there^
can be no doubt that Gandhafnadaua wa»
connected with the S opera mountain, which,
aa stated before, is in Sakadvipa or Soyfchia.
as one of its seven principal mountains. The
Matsya Parana ^ also says that Sumeru-
Patvata was bhuuded on the west by Hetu-
mala-var^a, and according to the Markaij-^
deya Parana, the Sakas or the , Scythians
resided in Ke^mak-var§a^. Sumeru there-
lote is the Hindu K^sh mountain, the Mount,
Meroa of Arrian® situated near Mount
Mysa or Nifada Parvata of the Purajpra
and Paropaniws of Ptolemj^^ JKasatala

-Matsya P.- ch. I 4 Zj 43., .

2 Markan 4 ^ya P, civ 59. . ,

3 McCrindle's Ancient. Indja as' descpheM

Megas'ihenee and Arrtan/^pl 18O. '

4 Lassen’s Htsiory tra&d'-fi^'

and IndehSi^’thian Coins in /. A, 8 , B, 1843, p*
469 note.

^lASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORCE

13

consequently must have been situated on
the Uorth and west of the Hindu Kush moun*
tain, that is, it coniprised the valleys of
of the OxUS Und the daxartes.

\Phe seven spheres into which Rasaiala
is divided are : Atala, Bitala, Nitala, TalS-
■ * ' tala, MahSrtala, Sutala, and

Sapta Fstala BasStala. Kasatala being the
or seven ■ country of the Huns, it is

Rasatala. natural that its seven ^spheres
or provinces should be named
after the names of the Huns or rather of
the tribes which dwelt in them. (I)' A 4 ala
derived its name from the A- tele or A-telites
where the Asura named Bala (Belus of
Babylon) resided*^ ; (2) Bi-tala from the jAh
tele or Ahi-tele or Abi-telites, the word A 6
being a corruption or abbreviation of Abi--
Amu or the “river Oxua”®, and Ab-tele
means the Huns who lived on the shores

I ■ Bhsgavata^ V, ch. 34. ,

Qeqgzaphv of Strabo , Vol. I, p. 113, note
4' i JBbRAS^ ,Vo1 XXI¥, ^ 565;., ^ . , : -

14

RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

of the Qxus. As the river Hatakl^ or the
Zarafahan, which is said to have its ^ouroe
in the Fan-tau mountain to the east o^
Samarkand near the Great Pamir^ is in
Pi tala, it must have appertained to Tran-
soxiana (Mavar-uUNakar) and formed a
part of the kingdom of Bokhara, (3) iVi-
tala from the Nepli-tele or Neph-telifcies,
In the BhSgavata^, the word JPatala (the
Palala-tala of the Devl-Bhagavata) has been
used for Ni-tala, and therefore the ‘sphere'
PStala was the same as Ni-tala, PStSlapura
was originally the name of A^ma or Oxiana,
the capital of Sogdiana, as we shall hereafter
show. (4) TaU:tala is from the To-charis,
The Asura Maya (Ahura Mazda of the
Avesta), the Spiritual Guide of the MSyli-
vla, dwelt in this sphere®. Maya and MSyS-

1 Bkagavata, V , ch. .

2 BMgavata, V, 24, 7 Vitalam

Sutalam TalMalarri Mahatalam Rasaialani Pata~
lamith -

3 BhugavataY, 24 j VII, 10, 53 : — MUyimm
Paratmcari'am May am Parana may ay uh.

RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD 15

¥is are the same as Maga,^ and Magli
(the followers of the Zoroastriaa religion)*
‘‘Maya” is a coTruption of ‘Maga' or *Mag^'
who represents Ahum Mazda the arohiteot
of the uni verse, and hence Maya , was the
architect of the Asuras. The Magii were
the ‘^Sskadvlpl BrShmanas” brought to
India by Stoba^ from Scythia. The MahS^
bhSrata^ mentions that the Brahmai^ias of
Sskadvlpa dwelt in Mrga, which has been
identified withMargiana, the oountrj^ around
Merv^. This sphere therefore comprised
Margiana. (5) Malia-tala from the Sq,e-
t(da or Hae-talites, who under the name
of Great yuechi (Kuahan) lived between

1 Kurma P., Purva kh., ch. 49 \-^Ma^mca
Magadhakcaiva Mattasa MafidagdsiatM^ BraHmain,-
ah K^atriya Vatsyah SUdrdscaira kramdna tu,

2 Bhavhya P., Brahma Parva, chs. 73 ff.

3 Mbit,, Bhl^ma, ch, ii.

4 Rawlinson’s Five Great Monarchies^ yol.
IV, pp. 25, 26 note : Bretschneider’s Media^vaf
Researches, vol. II, p. 103.

RASXTALA OR THE UNBBR'WORI/B

tBfe l^axaTtes and' Chu rivers after > the'
cbtfquest of this tracts Bokhara was a
telfie^aJite centre, and in Bokharian Ian*
gcrage “Haetal” means strong marl^^®.
m Buirtala from the Kirdaritie^ or Btl
t^bes, "Who lived on the Upper Jaxartes and
the Oxus. King Bali was confined in
Su-tala at Balkh which is a corruption of
the Turkish word Balikh which means *fthe
residence of a king'*. (7) MasMala is the
Sanskritised form of Basa-iele, the valley
of the Basa or the Jaxartes, on the banks of
Which the Huns resided : this is the general
name of the entire region called Basatala,
but with regard to the seventh sphere called
RasStala the MahSbharata® says that the
Surabhis, or Khorasmii of the classical
writers, dwelt in this sphere ; it therefore
included Khar ism or Kliiva.

I J .B.B,R.A,S,, vol x-xxw, p. 568 ; Smith*§

Bhry Wstdrji of lndtii\ pp.' 8, 242.

■ pB.B.RiA.S., vok'^ixiv. pp. 565, 5O7.

3 MM., Udyoga, ch. loi. » . . .

RASATALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

17

We have already stated that for the
sphere Ni-tala the JBhagavata has got Pa-
tala, and it should also be stated that for the
sphere Tala-tala, the Visnu Purana has got
Gabhastimat, and Gabhasti appears to be
the name of a river in ^akadvlpa^ or
Scythia, which is either the Murgab or the
Jaxartes, most probably the former. In the
Sahdaratnamll we have got Tala instead
of Tala-tala, and Ta-la represents Tu-ho-lo
of Hiuen Tsang, the country of the
Tocharis^. Por the seventh sphere Kasa-
tala, some of the Puraijas^ have got Patala,
but in the Bhagavata^ Basatala and Patala
have both been mentioned as the names of
two distinct and separate spheres, and Pata-
la, as already stated, has been used for
Ni'tala of the other Pura^Las. Patala is

I Viqnu P., ii, chs. 4, 5.

' 2 BeB.Vs Records of the Western Worlds vol. I,
P- 37 n.

3 Agni P., ch. 120, vs. i, 2.

4 Bhagavata, V, ch. 24. '

- 2 ' '

l8

RASaTALA or the under-world

also used as a synonym for RasStala as a
general name of the entire region. Thus
we see that Babylon was in Atala. Ban-
tau mountain near the Great Pamir was
in Bitala. Asma in Sogdiana was in Ni-
tala, Margiana in Tala-tala. Bokhara in
Maha-tala, Balkh in Su-tala, and Khiva in
Basatala, Hence it appears that the entire
region of Basatala was bounded on the east
by the Great Pamir, on the west by the
Babylonian empire or ^almaladvipa, on the
north by the northern boundaries of the
countries situated on the north of the
Caspian Sea and the Jaxartes, and on the
south most probably by the Indian Ocean
which was the Southern boundary of Sska-
dvipa.

It will be remarked that at least two of
the spheres of Basatala, namely TalS-tala
and Su-tala, derived their names
from the Tocharis and Su
tribes who were Scythians and
not Huns. But it should be
stated that both the Scythians and the

Huns and
Scythians
were

Turanians.

rasatala or the under-world ig

Huns were Turanians^. And most of the
Sakaa or Scythians were Hunnic tribes^
In fact both Herodotus and Strabo include
all the Hunnic tribes under the general
name of Scythians. The Tocharis, the
Taksaka Naga tribe of the Mahahharata
and the Takiuks of Scythia, are however
stated to be Tak-i-uk Moguls by M,
Deguignes?. Some of the tribes as the
Messagetae were Huns^, though according
to Herodotus they were regarded as a
‘‘Scythian race’"®. It should be here stated
that in the 5th century a. d., the Huns
lost the original name of Huns and began
to be known as Turks, as one of their
tribes of that name became very powerful.
Later on the Mogul tribe of Huns under

1 JBBRAS., vol, IV, pp. 548, 564.

2 JBBRAS., voL IV, p. 563.

3 Tod’s Rajasthan, vol.I, ch.6, p. 60.

4 lBBRAS.,vo\.XKlY,^, ^62.

5 Rawlinson’s History of Herodotus, vol. I,

p. 103 ; see also M. Hue’s Travels in Tartarf,
Tibet and China, vol. I, p. 237. .

20

RASITALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

Jengiz Khan became very powerful, and this
tribe gave its name to the whole nation^.

Rasatala has been principally described
as the abode of the NSgas, and the Mafia-
hharata^ gives two lists of names of the
principal NSgas who lived
there, and the Padma Pura-
also gives a list of their
names. Though these names
are stated to be names of
individual Nagas, yet it ap-
pears that each name re-
presents a tribe of Huns,
^esa represents the “Sses’’ of Sogdiana*
the capital of which was Marakanda or
Samarkand® Vasuki the Usuivis ; Karko-

Identifica-
tion of the
names of
nagas with
those of
Hunnic
tribes ^esa
and others.

1 JBBRAS., vol. XXIV, p. 558.

2 Mbh.i Adi, ch. 35 ; Udyoga, ch. 102.

3 Padma P., Srsti, ch. 6,

4 Geography of Strabo, vol. II, pp. 240 note,

245* .

5 McCrindle’s Imasion of India by Alexander,
ihe Great i p, 40.'

RASSTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

21

taka the Kara-Kasak, the Kasaks were
also called Kirghiz. They lived all over
Central Asia ; a dynasty of the tribe of
Huns reigned in Kasmir after the Gonanda
dynasty. ’■

Taksaka, as stated before, represents
the Tocharis, the Tak-i-uk Moguls who
lived ill Tocharistan or Bactria, after whom
the whole country was called
Turkestan. They are the Tusa^
ras of the Matsya Furma^ and Tukharas
of the Brhat-samhita^ by Varaha-miliira.
They were the inhabitants of the country
Tu-ho-lo of Hiuen Tsang, which may
phonetically represent Tur, and so indicate
the origin of Turan, the region to which
Wilford assigned the Tukharas^. Parlksit of

Taksaka.

1 Vambery’s History of Bokhara^ p. 103;
Dr. Stein^s Rajatarangi'mf vol. I, bk. iv,; Vatn*
beryls Travels in Central Asia, pp, 345* 3 ^ 8 .

2 Matsya P., ch. 121,

Bfkat~sa7nAita, ch. 16. . '

4, Beafs RWC.f vol. I, p. 37 note.

22

RASlTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

Elapatra.

the MahahlwTata was treacherously assas-
sinated by a Taksaka.

Elapatra represents the Bphthalifces or
the white Huns, from whom the word
Patala, as the name of the seven spheres,
has been derived and subse-
quently applied to the whole
country of Kasatala. The Ephthalites were
a most powerful tribe of Huns who lived
in Easatala or the valley of the Jaxartes,
and who invaded India long before the time
of Alexander the G-reat, and made settle-
ments in the Punjab and in Sindh. They
overran Persia and killed its king Eiroz in
a battle in 484 a.d. Their descendants also
invaded India at the time of Skandagupta.
The corruption of the two words Ma and
Tatra is Ala and TMa respectively, and it
is possible to conceive that the trans-
position of these two words might have led
to the formation of the word Tatala. There
can be no doubt, however, that the word
PatSla has been derived from the Ephthali-
tes, and it is confirmed by the fact that

RASITALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD 2 $

from the settlement of the Ephthalites in
Sindh, who have been called Sogdoi^ by
Alexander’s historians, the delta of the
Indus was called Patalene and its capital
was called Patala^. The Mahabharata^^
however, says that the word Patala means a
“great fall” of water from the moon and
other “watery heavenly bodies”. This is of
course a mythical interpretation. In the
seventh century Hiuen Tsang mentions that
the serpent ElSpatra lived in a tank on the
north-west of Taksasila at Hassan Abdul
in the Punjab and obtained a share of the
relic after Buddha’s death^. The Bphthali-
tes were also called Haetalites, and another
of the seven spheres, Mahatala, has derived
its name from them. In the Bokharian

1 McCrindle’s Invasion of India by AUxandef
the Greats p. 354.

2 McCrindle^s Ancient India as described, by
Megasthenes and Arrian^ p. 183 note.

3 i/M., Udyoga, ch. 98.

4 Beal’s RWC, vol. I, p. 137 ; vol. II, p. 41.

24 RASiTALA OR THE UN]?ER-WORLD

language ‘'HaitaP’ means a “strong man”,^
as stated before.

Ugraka represents the Uigurs®, Aryaka
the Ariacse^, Sumukha the Kumiiks^,
Tittarithe Tatars, afterwards called Tartars®,
Asvatara the Aspasians or Asis®, and
perhaps the Assakenoi of
other Nag^ Arrian^, ^alipinda the Salor,
the oldest Turkoman tribe
recorded in history® ; Dadhirnukha the
Dahse, a celebrated Scythic tribe who lived

1 JBBRAS,, vol. XXIV, p. 565.

2 For the name see Prof. Max Muller’s
Science of Language^ vol. I, p. 348.

3 Ibid., I, p. 242.

4 Ibid.., I, p. 349. For Sumukha the Padma
P. (Srsti, ch. 6) has Durmukha.

5 Ibtd, I, pp. 349, 342 j Sir Henry Yule’s
Marco Polo, vol. bp. 12 note.

6 Tod’s Rajasthan, vol. I, p. 61 ; McCrindle’s
Inpa^on of India Alexander the Great, p, 60.

y McCrlndk's Ancient ladia as described bf
Megajithenes and Arrian, p. 180.

$ gavels in Central Asia, p. 304

RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD 25.

on the shores of the upper Jaicarfces, after
whom the whole of Central Asia was called
the “country of the Dahis”^ ; Apura^ta,
the Aparnis of Strabo^, who lived in the
1st century b. c. ; Kaliyas and Ka-lakeyas-
the. Karas described as pitiless robbers and
an exceedingly savage tribe of Turkomans^..

Musakada represents the Massagatae,,
who, according to Herodotus, lived on the
east of the Caspian Sea^ beyond the
Araxes® which is evidently the river

1 Farvardin 144 in the SBE.,

vol. XXIII ; JBBRAS., vol XXIV, p. 548/

2 StrabOf bk. XI, ch. viii, 2, trans. by Harail ,
ton and Falconer, vol. II, p. 243.

3 Vambery’s Travels in Central Asia, p. 304 ;
Mbk, Vana, ch. lOO.

4 Rawlinson’s Herodotus, bk. I, ch. 204 (voL

I, p. 104). '

5 Ibid,, bk. I, ch. 20 ; vol. I, p. 103. Tod
also says ‘'We will merely add that the kingdom
of the Great Gete whose capital was on the
Jaxartes preserved its integrity and name from the
period of Cyrus to the fourteenth century, when

26

rasatala or the under-world

Jaxartes, as it is said that Asia is bounded
“on the north by the Caspian and the river
Araxes which flows towards the rising
sun^’'. They were the Masaka (K§atriya)
of Sakadvipa®. They have been included
among the Su tribes of Scythians along
with the Tocharis and the Dahso, but they
were actually Hunnic tribes^. It is evident
that after their name the province of
Sskadvlpa, in which they lived, was called
Masaka, the Massage tai of Ptolemy^. The
Massagetse, which means the “Great Gete’*,
were a very powerful race, and Cyrus king
of Persia lost his life in a battle with the
queen Tomyris and the greater part of
the Persian army was destroyed. They

it was converted from idolatry to the faith of
Islam” [Rajasthan ^ vol. r, p. 97).

1 Jlawlinson\s Herodotus, bk. IV, ch. 40 (vol.
bp. 302).

2 Mbk.i Bhisma, ch, ii.

3 /BBRAS,, vol. XXIV, pp. 548, 562.

4 Bhisma, ch. ii. «

RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD • 2/

were known by the name of Getes, —
“Djetes,-’ that is Jetes of Transoxania, —
and also by the name of Jits or Jats in
India, and some of the Rajput clans claim
descent from the latter^. At the time of
the Mamayana^ many communities of
Massagetse had settled in the Deccan as
has been allegorically described in the story
of Jatayu and his brother Sampati. In
fact Jatayu is a contraction of Massagetse
or a variant of Gete. Jatayu lived in
Janasthana and Sampati dwelt in a cave
in the Vindhya mountain in Mysore, which
should not be confounded with its namesake
in upper India^, while the rest of the
Deccan was interspersed with the settle-
ments of Eaksasas who were also Turanians
and belonged to the Hunnic tribe. Accor-
ding to Herodotus, who flourished in the 5 th

I Tod^s Rajasthan, vol. I, p. 97 ; Vambery’s
History of Bokhara, p. 174.

"3 Raimyana, Aranya, ch. 49 j Ki8kindhya>

ch. 56.

28

RASITALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

century b.c., the Masaagetse were canni-
bals, as he mentions it among their customs :
‘Human life does not come to its natural
close with this people ; but when a man
grows very old, all his kinsfolk collect
together and offer him up in sacrifice ;
offering at the same time some cattle also.
After the .sacrifice they boil the flesh
and feast on it ; and those who thus end
their days are reckoned the happiest. If a
man dies of disease they do not eat him,
but bury him on the ground, bewailing his
ill-fortune that he did not come to be
sacrificed. They sow no grain, but live on
their herds, and on fish, of which there
is great plenty in the Araxes. Elsewhere
Herodotus says, “The Scythian soldier
drinks the blood of the first man he over-
throws in battle”^. These were the customs
of almost all the Scythio tribes though
Herodotus speaks of cannibalism with

I Rawlinson’s Herodotus yVo\. I, pp. 109, 310*

RASlTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

f 29

Special reference to the Massagetes only.
Strabo also says that some of the Scythians
were ferocious and were cannibals^, Hero-
dotus himself, it appears, did not believe
that the Massaget^ were a Scythian race ;
he, however, says that by many they were
regarded as such, and in their dress and
mode of living they resembled the Scythi-
ans It seems that like the Suparnas and
Surabhis of the Su tribe, some of the
Massagetse to which Jatayu belonged, be-
came early converts to the Aryan religion
and subsequently became followers of Visnu,
as it appears from the fact that though
Massagetse, Jafayu and his brother Sam-
pati have been stated as the nephews of
Garuda being the sons of his brother Aru:^a®
who belonged to the Su-tribe. As a
Yaisnava, Jatayu gave up eating flesh, while

r Hamilton and Falconer’ Stralo^ bk. VII,
, qh. Ill, 9 in Vol. I, p. 464.

2 Rawlinson’s Herodotus, vol. I, p. 103, 108.

3 Padfm P*, Srsti, ch. 6.

30 ^ RASitALA Or the UNDER-WORLD

his brother Sampati manifisted some han-
kering after the flesh of the monkeys whom
he saw from his cave at Yindhyacala
where he resided, and perhaps for this
proclivity his wings were said to have been
scorched by Surya, the Sun-god, who is
identical with Vis]3.u. As Garucja was the
vehicle or charioteer of Vj§nu, and Ariiijia
of Surya, so Jatayu, on account of his
conversion to Vaisnavism, is said to have
been an ally of Dasaratha ; he fought hard
with Raivana and was killed by him,
while Sita was being abducted by him
in the wilds of Dandakaranya ; and it
was Sampati who gave a clue to the
monkeys as to the whereabouts of Slta^.

Subahu, ^rivaha, Surasa and Savala*
represent the Su tribe of Scythians. It is
mentioned in the Mahabharata that while

1 Rmia>yana, Aranya, cli. 15 j Kiskindhyaj
chs., 56, 58.

2 Mlh.y Adi, ch. 35 ; Udyoga, ch. 102.

RASITALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD 3 1

Narada and Matali went to Pa tala to seek
a suitable bridegroom for the
latter’s daughter, they after
tribes. visiting Hiraxiyapura went to

the country of the Suparnas,
and then visited the country of the Sura-
bhis^. The mention of Hiranyapura in
Patala gives us some indication there to
seek for it. Kasyapa had thirteen wives ;
by his wife Diti he had two sons Hiranyaksa
and Hiraiiya-kasipu, who were the ancestors
of the Daityas ; and the sons by his wife
Danu were called Danavas. Hiraiiyapura
was the capital of the Daityas and Danavas.
It will be observed that just on the south-
eastern side of the Caspian Sea, there was
an ancient town called Hyrcania which was
the capital of the country of the same
name ; it was situated near the modern
town of Astrabad. On the southern and
western sides of the Caspian Sea and imme-

I Ibid.-, Udyoga, chs. 99, 100, loi.

32 rasatala or the underworld

diately to the east, according to some
authority, to the north of Media was the
country of the Kaspii or Kaspios. The
Caspian Sea was called by the name of
^‘Mare Caspium or Hyrcania” by the classi-
cal writers. The name of Hyrcania appears
to be connected with those of the two
brothers Hirai?.ya;ksa and Hira^ya-kasipu,
the “Adi” or primitive Daityas who founded
a royal dynasty^, and the name of the Kaspii
also appears to be connected with that of
their father Kasyapa,, It is curious that
the royal Scythians' claim their descent
from Oolaxais^, who is perhaps identical
with Kasyapa, the progenitor of the Daityas,
Danavas, Asuras, Nagas and other Tura-
nian nations, who were of course non-
Aryans. There can be no doubt therefore
that the Daityas and Danavas lived on the
southern and western sides of the Caspian

1 Bhagavata, iii, ch. j Mbh.^ Vana, ch. lOl.

2 Rawlinson’s Herodotus^ bk. iv, ch. 6, (vol.
I, p. 289).

RASaTALA or the under-world 33

Sea and on the north and the east of the
ancient country of Ariana. Hyrcania thdre-
fore was the Hira^yapura of the Mahai-
bhSrata. From Hira^iyapura, Na,rada and
Matali went to the country of the Supariaas^
or Garuda birds. The names of all the clans
which belonged to this tribe commenced
with Su“, and therefore they must have
belonged to the Su tribe of Scythians,
They evidently lived on the north of
Hyrcania, and their country was separated
from the latter by the river Atrek, the an-
cient name of which was Sarnius which is
apparently a corruption of Supar^a. Sar-
nius therefore separated the kingdom of
Hirafl.yapura from the country of the

1 Mhh., Udyoga, ch, lOO, v. i ; — Ayam lokah
supariyamm pak§mam pannagahinam.

2 IHd,^ Udyoga, ch. lor, vs. 2, 3 : Vainateya
s^ta sha^bhistatamidarri kulam^ sumukhem

sunMmftU ca suneirena swvarcasa. Suruca paksi-
s^b^Una ca mat ale ^ vardhitdni prasrtya t>ai
mnatikala kartf bklh,

3

34 RASITALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

Supar:n.as. Hence the Supamas lived in
Turkistan, including the Trans-Caspian
district, bounded on the west by the Caspian
Sea, on the south by the river Sarnius, and
on the north by the river Jaxartes. Strabo
also mentions that on advancing from the
south-east of the Caspian Sea towards the ^
east, the nations to be met with were the
Dahae, Massagetae, etc., who belonged to-
the Su tribe^. From the country of the :

Suparnas, Narada and Matali went to the ’

country of the Surabhis or the cow-tribe®.
Surabhi is apparently the Sanskritised
form of Khorasrnii of the Greek writers,.

The country of the Surabhis therefore was
situated on the north of the Oxus ; it is
now called Kharis m or the Khanat of
Elhiva ; it is also called Urgendj® or Or-

1 Geography of Strabo, vol. ii, p. 245, sec.

and note 2 ; JBBRAS., vol. xxiv, p. 548.

2 Udyoga, ch. loi.

3 Vambery’s Travels in Central Asia, p, 339 ;

Burnes’ TravBs in Bokhara, vol, iii, p. 162.

RASaTALA or the under-world 35

gunje, which is the Urjagun^a of the
Matsya Pur%a^. Strabo distinctly says
that “the Khorasmii belong to the Massa-
getse*’®, and therefore there can be no doubt
that the Khorasmii or the Surabhis belong-
ed to the. Su tribe. It appears that Sarama,
who was sent by Indra to ascertain the
place where the cows robbed by the Pa^iis,
the Paruis of Strabo, as the Dahse were
called, who lived on the eastern side of the
Caspean Sea^, — had been kept concealed,
was also a- Scythian. Sarama apparently
represents the tribe of “Sarmatians, who
are Scythians’’ and who lived on the north
of the Caspian Sea^. Su-parnaa and Su-
rabhis, and Sa-rama, who is described as a
‘fair’ woman, belonged to the Su tribe of
the Scythians, and it appears that they
were the early converts to the Aryan reli-

1 Matsya P.i ch. 120^ V, 4.6*

2 Strabo t bk. xi, ch, viii, 8.

3 Ibid., hk, xit ch. vilf l,

4 bk. xii ch* ib I.

36 RASSTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

gioR. They were taken into the communities
of Aryans, and to each converted tribe was
assigned some particular duty. Thus the
Supania tribe became their charioteers, as
Garuja, Jcalled also Supar^ia, was the
charioteer of Vii^u, and his brother Arupa
was the charioteer of Surya. Su-b 5 hu, which
means ^one with beautiful arras’ is the same
as Su-parua, which means ‘one with beauti-
ful plumage or wings’^. It appears that
the Suparijas were also called Srivaha®
which means “beautiful”. It has already
been stated that Su-tala received its name
from the Ki-darites. It cannot be ascer-
tained whether the word Sri is a corruption
of Kirdarites or not, but there can be no
doubt that Su stands for Ki of Ki’-darites,
as the Turanian k, or rather the non- Aryan
h is equivalent to Sanskrit s, as SumuTchci)
for KumuCj Surahhi for Khorasmi% Sdlmala-
dvipa for Ohalrdia. It should be stated

1 Mbh., Adi, ch» 33* .

2 t/dyoga, ch. for, V. 5.

RASITALA OR THE UNDER'WORLD 37

here that according to M.Drouin, the Kidari-
tea were a Hunnic tribe different from tlio
Ephthalites^. The Surabhi converts be-
came the milkmen and soothsayers of the
Aryans. According to Herodotus there
were many people in Scythia who could
foretell the future by means of willow
wands, and it appears that the Surabhis
were especially endowed with power of
prophecy®. It was purely a Magian prac-
tice®. Surabhis were also called Surasa
and Subala for supplying milk, and Yasis-
tha’s ‘cow\ which evidently belonged to the
Surabhi tribe, was called Subala^. The
SarainS converts became door-keepers and
watch-men® of the ancient Aryans. SaramS,

1 JBBRAS,^ voL xxiv, p. 571 note.

2 Rawlinson’s Herodotus^ vol. I, p, 3 13
(Bk, iv, ch. 67); Markan^eya P., ch. 21.

3 Rawlinson's Five Great Monarchm Qfthe
Ancient Eastern World, vol. iii, p. 130.

4 Adi, ch. 52.

5 $g-veda, X, 14, 7-1 1 ; see Monier WiUiau|s’
Indian Wisdom,

38 RASaTALA or the under^world

according to the Bhagavata, was one of
the wives of Kasy apa^ .

That the Supar^as were early, converts
to the Aryan religion is confirmed by the
fact that Dr. Spooner, was very much
impressed '‘with the striking

Garuda iconographioal resemblance be-
tween the sculptured images
of Garuda in India and the customary
figure of Ahura Mazda in ancient Persian
Art”, and he says that he found some rela*
tion between Garuda, the vehicle of Visi^LU,
and GarS-nmanem, the abode of Ahura
Mazda in theAvesta^. Dr. Modi objects
to this identification on the ground that
one has to take the A vesta n for the

1 Babdahalpadrumai sv. Kahyapa,

2 Dr. Spooner’s Zoromtridn Period of Indian
hisforf in the Journal of the Royal Asiatio Society,
1915, p. 427, vfhere he <|Uote following
passage from the Fendidad invoke Gar6-
nmanem, the abbde of Ahura Mazda." See also
Pergusson's Nineveh and FersepoUsi p. 295 nUle,'

RASXTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD S 9

Indian d^. But Dr. Spooner was correct
in his identification, as his statement is
confirmed by the Mahabharata. Garu^a,
while carrying the elephant and the
tortoise with his nails, was invited by a
Banyan tree {Ficus Indica) to sit upon its
branch and eat them, and he was addressed
^*Oh Garut-man I you sit upon my extensive
branch one hundred yojanas wide and
eat the elephant and the tortoise*’®.
The Amara-kosa and other lexicogra-
phies and the Padma Pura^a® have got
Garutman as one of the names of Garuda^.
The abode or paradise of Ahura Mazda
named Garonmanem® is also called by the
names of GarStman in the Pahlavi com-

1 Dr. J. J. Modi's Ancient Paialiputra in
JBBFAS., xxiv, p. 530.

2 Mdk., Adi, ch. 29.

3 Padma P., Srsti, ch. 44 ca
Garutm^^hca pra'mmya Urasa Harim,

4 Budbdakalpadruma^ sv, Garu^a.

5 Vendidad, ch. xix, 32 (105) ; Yast^ iH, G 4 :

40 rasatala or the under-world

mentary of the Avesta^, GarothmSti by the
Parsis^, Gar5(Jmari^ and GarS-deonana^ in
the A vesta. Garut-rnatta of the MuhabhUrata
and Garut-inSna of the Padma PurSj^ia there-
fore appear to be identical with Garotman,
GarothmSn and GarodinS.n. But as the bird
saved the lives of the Bslakhilya y§is
by holding up the broken branch with his
beak, the rsis bestowed upon him the name
of Garu^a for his power of bearing such an
immense burden, and since that day he has
been called Garuda®. It is therefore clear
that his former name was Garutman and
not Garuda. It is also related that while
Garuda was carrying away amrfo, or nectar

B.E,, iv, pp. 214, 215 ; xxiii, p, 43 ; Visparad^
vii : S. B. E.i xxxi, p. 345,

1 S.B, E., iv, p. 230 note.

2 Uidy vol. iv, p. 214 note ; xxiii, pp, 317 n*,
337 n.".

3 GathuSy Yasna, li, 15, Gar6dman means
Home of Song : 5 . B , E.y vol. Xxxi, p. 184.

4 Rashn Yast (xii), 37 ; S.B.E.y xxiii, p, 177.

5 Mbh., Adi, ch. 30.

RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD 41

in order to release his mother Vinata from
her thraldom, Indra hurled at him his
thunderbolt. It did him no injury whatever,
yet in deference to the rsi with whose
bone the thunderbolt was manufactured,
he gave up a feather which was so beauti-
ful that the gods conferred upon him the
title Suparna, and since that day he has
been called Suparn.a,and he became a friend
of Indra which perhaps indicates that in
the religious schism he sided with the party
of Indra. Garuda^s name is mentioned in
the Taittiriya Arainyaka^, This clearly
proves that the Su tribes of the Scythiane
had become converts to the Aryan reli-
gion at a remote period, long before the*
Indo-Aryans migrated to the Punjab. Dr.
Modi says, ^‘The Su tribe, which was
attacked (by the Huns), consisted of the
different Turanian tribes, such as the-

r Idl, ch. 33 .

2 Tait, Ir. X, I, 6.

42 rasatala or the under-world

Messagatae, Tochari, and Dahse, who lived
on the frontiers of Persia on the shores of
the Upper Jaxartes”^.

It will be remarked that notwibh*
standing the inclusion of the Scythian con-
verts into the Aryan communities, some
distinction appears to have
been made between them and
the true Aryans by ascribing
to them some animal forms
with a view to denote their
Turanian origin. Thus the Suparuas were
considered as birds, the Surabhis as
cows, the Sararaas as dogs. To other
Hunnic converts was given the shape of
snakes.

The episode of the fight between the
Qala and the Kacchapa^f that is the Ele-*

1 /BBRAS. xxiv, p. 548.

2 MdA.t Adi, ch. 29 ; Padma P., Spgti, ch.
44 ; — Ti^hantau mpulau tatra pgharn.s% Gaja
KacchapaUi aprameyau mahasatvau sagarasthai-
^adekatah.

Animal
shapes of
Scythian
•converts.

RASITALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD 43

phant and the Tortoise, as related in the
MahSbharata and the Pur5-

Fight

between allegorical des-

the Ele- cription of a protracted war be-

the Tortoise, ^ween the people oi brazaKa
or Graza, representing the
Aryans, and the now extinct tribe called
Kaspii ( the Turanian Banavas ), till they
were both exterminated by Garuda, ( the
Turnanian Huns ), This is a traditional
account of a war between the two races
at a remote period before the Aryan
migration to India. Q-azaka or Graza, as it
was called* was the summer capital of
Atropatene^, modern Azerbijan, one of the
two divisions into which ancient Media was
divided, Atropatene being the eastern divi-
sion. According to Pliny®, the Kaspii
lived on the north of Media along the
Caspian Sea near the river Cyrus or the
modern Kuru, on the southern side of

1 Geograpliy of Straho^ vol. ii, p. 263.

2 Ibid.yyiol, ii, p. 218, note 2

44 RASATALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

Armenia and Albania. According to Strabo
their country called Caspiana appertained
to Albania^, but elsewhere he designates
them by the name of Cosssei and says that
they lived to the east of Media There
can be no doubb therefore that they lived
on the eastern side of Media but towards
the north. The Kaspii were a famous tribe,
as after their name the Caucasus mountain
is called Mount Kaspius and the Hyroanian
Sea the Caspian Sea^. There can be no
doubt that the country of the Kaspii
adjoined Atropatian Media or Azerbijan.
The Kaspii have been described by Strabo*
as a barbarous people who starved to
death those among them who were above
seventy years of age by exposing them
in a desert place. They were a tribe of
marauding -bandits who never lost an

1 Geography of Strabo, vol. ii, p, 234.

2 Ibid,, vol. ii, p. 264,

3 Jbii,, vol. ii, pp, 226, 234.

4 Ibid., vol. ii, p. 258,

RASaTALA or the under-world 45

opportunity to exact tribute from the
Median kings It is very probable that
the name of the Kaspii suggested the name
of Kasyapa as the progenitor of the
Turanian race. In the Atharva-Yeda
Kasyapa denoted a tortoise^. Gazaka was
situated on the south-western side of the
Caspian Sea and on the south-eastern
side of lake Urumiya, and the fight between
the Gaja and the Kacchapa is said to
have taken place near the sea-shore, evi-
dently the shore of the Caspian Sea.
Garuda, after he had carried the Nagas
(serpents) on his back at the command of
the latter’s mother Kadru and at the request
of his own mother VinatS to Kamaijlyaka-
dvlpa® learnt at that place about his
mother’s thraldom to Kadru and also the
means of her emancipation from her ser-

I Ibid., vol. H, p. 264.

r d Vedic Ind^Xf vol. I, p. 144; Atharva-vida,
iv, 207 ; Batapatha BrBkinana, vii, 5 ^ S*

5 MbM„ Adi, ch, 26. .

46 rasatala or the under-world

vitude. Garuda felt very hungry, and by
the direction of his mother he devoured
myriads of Nisadas or fishermen on the
sea-shore, but his hunger was not satisfied.
He therefore went to his father who was-
performing asceticism on the north of the
Zauhitya Sagara^ or the Erythraean Sea,
and by his instruction he took up the
elephant and the tortoise, which were of
enormous size, with one of his claws, and
flew to a Bata tree {Mens Indioa) situated
at Alamba Urtha, to eat them. The
branch broke, and he flew away to a moun-
tain elsewhere and there devoured the
elephant and the tortoise®. But the
Buraias go still further. They state that
the elephant was very much pressed in
the fight, and in his despair he prayed
to Vis^LU to deliver him from his difficult
position, and Vimu went to the spot on

1 Padma P.y Srsti, ch, 44 tUasiapas-

tepe LauhiiyasyoUare tale^

2 Mbhi Adi, cb. 30.

RASXTALA OR THE UNDER- WORLD AJ

his vehicle Garuda, killed his enemy and
saved him^. The Puranas, it will be
remarked, thus preserve the Aryan origin
of . Gaja or the Elephant. It will be ob-
served that the entire scene of the story is
placed on the western side of the Caspian
Sea, which is the Kgira sagara of the
Purairias, and the JR^ama/iiiyahadvi'pa may
be easily identified with the country of
Armenia, Ramanlyaka being a pleonastic
form of Bamaniya or Armenia^ and Alamha
with Albania, the capital of the ancient
province of the same name now called
Shirwan, situated on the shore of the
Caspian Sea, as is indicated by the word
tirtha attached to the name and by the
distinct mention that the foot of the Bata
tree situated in Alamba was laved by
the waves of the ‘sea’* which was evidently
the Caspian Sea. The scene of the whole
Story therefore comprised Atropatian

i VSmam P., ch. 8$ •

1 2 ’Mbki lidl, ch, 2g. ' ‘

48 RASXTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

Media, Caspiana, Armenia and Albania,
that is, most of the Trans-Caucasian States.
Two facts may be deduced from the
■allegorical description of the fight. One
is that the people of Azerbijan, the capital
of which was Gazaka, and which in the
language of the Avesta was called Arya-
vaijam, the supposed original home of the
Aryans, were frequently subjected to the
invasions and depredations of the barbarous
nomad tribes by whom they were surroun-
ded, and were in a constant state of
insecurity. Hence it should be inferred
that the principal cause of Aryan migration
from Iran to India and the countries to
the west, was not so much for religious
schism, as it has been generally supposed,
though it may have been one of the causes ;
but was due to a feeling to escape from
the oppression, cruelties and devastations
of the barbarous tribes to a place of security
where they could enjoy peace and the fruits
of their labour in the fields. The other ,
fact that may be deduced from the story

RASA.TALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD 49

is that Garuda, one of whose names was
^almali^ or Chaldea, was originally an
inhabitant of Chaldea* or Mesopotamia, and
this is corroborated by the fact that his
father Kasyapa practised asceticism on
the north of the Lauhitya (Red) or
Erythraean Sea, whioli in the Pauranic
language was called Ghrta Samudra and
which surrounded Salmaladvipa® or Chal-
dea. It is also very probable thatKadru, the
•mother of the Nagas, was a Kurd, Carduchi
•of the ancients^ as her name indicates, that
is a woman of Kurdistan, and that she
was married to Kasyapa who was per-
haps the same as Colaxais® mentioned
by Herodotus as the progenitor of the
royal Scythians. Hence it should be in-
ferred that Chaldea was the original abode

I Amara-kosa. 2 BhZigavata^ v, 20, where
it is said that Garuda lived upon the Salmali
tree {Bombax Malabaricum) which gave its name
to the division called ^almala-dvlpa.

3 Vkraha P., ch. 89. 4 Strabo^ bk. xiv, chf;
I, 24. 5 RawHnson’s Herodotus, Bk. iv, ch. d«

4 ,

50 RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

at least of tbe Su and other kindred tribes-
of Scythians, and that they were obliged
to emigrate to the east of the Caspian Sea,
most probably on account of the growing
powers of the Semitic race, as is re-
presented by the story of G-aruda haying
carried his deformed brother Armia on hia
back to the east across the Sea^. Garuda
was a Chaldean or a Mesopotamian from his
mother’s side ; this accounts for his and
his brother Aruna’s early conversion to the
Aryan or Mithraic religion. From the
cunneiform inscriptions of Boghuz-Keui
and Tel-el-Amarna it appears that the
Mitannians or Hittifces of Northern Meso-
potamia worshipped Mithra and Varurjia
so far back as 1500 b.o.^ The Iranian
Mithra and the Vedic Mitra being the Sun-
go^, it is very probable that Mitanni

1 M 34.) Adi, ch. 24, v$, 3, 4.

2 December, 1921, p,

767 ; BaveWs of ilu Aryqn fiuk in India^

P- 4L , , : ■ •„ ' „

RASiTAI,A OR THJE U^irOER-WOiaD

5 *

was the “Mitravana” of the JBhavisya
Pura^ia^.

It is remarkable that almost all the
generic names of the serpents in Sanskrit
have been derived from the general and
tribal names of the Huns and other Tora-^

nian races, as Naga is a cormption of
■nu® the original name of the Huns;
$arpa corresponds to the tribal

Sanskrit
names of
serpents are
almost all
Hunnic '
names :
Nagas and
other names.

name of Sartmpa or Sarwya^;
JTrag a to the Uigurs^ ^ who
were ; the ancestors of the TJa-
begs. The word JJraga could
not have been possibly
derived from the Urogs, as
tribes were called after the
dismemberment of Attila’s Hunnic empire
in 462 A.D., because the word existed before

the

Ugric

o

1 BhcA)i&ya P,y I, 73, 4.

2 vol. xxiv, p. 544.

Tod’s RUfasthan, vol. I, ch. 7, p. 104.

4 Max Mailer^s cf Lan;u(xxe, "^ol,

p. 348, ' ''' r' ' ^ .

54 rasitala or the under world

corres

t

with

the Iranian

or D5sa
Daihu. . ; .

Phdm is derived from the word Pa^i^
the name of a tribe mentioned in the Bg-
vede/ . which lived in Vd& on the bank of
the river Vasa* It should, however, be men-
tioned that Mr. Nagendra Nath
Vasu in his Vaiiya-Mi}4<^ states
in one place that the Paj^is
were a branch of the Aryan
anoldier pkoe that “the
not have been non-Aryans»
h^t they were Aryas or Aryabhmdpaitbnci'
{endowed with the characteristics of iryat). ?
He further says that they w^e traders,
and lived in India*; from Iidk they
went and founded the country known by
the name of Phoenicia. Following YSska,

Phani
derived
from Pani.

raee,*^ and

^in

I k, ip8; t ; Mast

4}f imguaii, vol. li p. yia * '

3 P- ’

ePs Sctmce

RASaTALA or the under world SS

lie derives froHi Pa^i the word “PoniiV'
(Phconik), by which term the Phoenicians
were known to the Greeks and GermanSj
and he further* developed it into ‘Vanik*
i.e. the Vaisya class of India. ^

Mr. Vasu has made many assum]>tion8
and his conclusions are not warranted . by
facts. He says that the Pa^is were Aryaili,
though in the Rgveda they are
Paniswerea called DSsas or Dasyus.® Saya-
tribe, nScarya and Mahidhara, . whom

he has himself qdoted, describe
them as robbers and Asuras^ that is as a
non- Aryan race.® Aoeording to Mr, Vasu*s
own statement the BbSgavata has mentioi]^
eel them along with the Daityas, Danavas,

I Vai 8 ya-Km) 4 a, pp. I2, 13# 2 J^gvedii, vii, 6, 3.
5 ^''Payt.anti paradravyair vyavahamn^ '-.-U
Pa'inAyo* surah** — Mahidhara’s commentary oil

thi V^'manefysamhiU (35**1) : see Varyha-
p. 7 ; SSyana’s commentary on the ^ v^dair^iu^
X,' I# ^

56 kasatala or the under-world

aad other inhabitants of Rasafcala.^ It wilf
be observed also that in the same PurSj^a
the word Pa:^i “has been used as a synonym
for a thief, and Srldhara, the commentator
of the Bhagavata, refers to the Pajjis as
“ Yysalas ” or Madras, and not as Vai^iks or
Taisyas.® Professor Max Muller and Dr.
Macdonellj whom Mr. Vasu has cited as his
authorities in connection with other matters
on this subject, call them demons,® and Dr.
Macdonell even goes so far as to say that-
the place called Tala on the Rasa, where
the Panis kept the cows concealed, has
been personified into a demon (Asura).^ Mr.
Vasu admits that the Paiiis lived on the

1 Vazsfa-kanda, p. 7, citing Bhlgamta^ iv,
24, 3 incorrectly ; see Bhagavata^ v, ch. 24,

2 Bhagavata, v, ch. 9; see ^ridhara^s cotn-
raentaries on verses u and 15 of the aforesaid
chapter.

3 Sckme Language, vol. H,,
P 51a '

4 MacdonelFs Histofy of Sanskrit Literature^
p. 1 14 ; see also BMgdhata, ch. 24.

RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD ST

bank of the river KasS, which has been
identified by Dr. Geiger with Rahgha of
the Vendidad. Drs. Keith and Maodonell
have identified the river with the Jaxartes. ^
In fact Rasa appears to be a variant, or
rather a corrupted form of Araxes which,
according to Herodotus® and Strabo, *
followed through the country of the Mas-
sagetse, or in other words, it has been
correctly identified with the Jaxartes, That
being so, it must be presumed that the
Paiiis, who lived on the bank of the Rasa,,
were a tribe of the Huns, i. e. they were
non- Aryans as stated by SSyana, Mahidhara
and the Rhagavata. The SararaS story in
the [^-g-veda further proves that the Fanis
never heard the name of Indra'*’ ; they a^ked

I Vedtc Ifkifx of Names and Subjects, vol. IT,
p. a09 ; Sacred Books of the East, vol. IV, p. 3.

a KawHnson’s Herodotus, bk. I, cb. 201 in voL
I, P/ IQ3.

3 Hamilton and Falconer’s Strabo, bV. XI^
ch. viii, 6 in vol. II, p. 217,

4

58 RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

Sarama, “What kind man is Indra, 0
Saraina ?* Had they been Aryans they
would not have certainly displayed sudi
ignorance about Indra, and it furtbei
appears that “the land of the Pasjis does
not seem to have fallen within the juris-
diction of the ruler of Div,” in other words,
they lived outside the Aryan country, and
this is corroborated by Bh 5 : ‘fFair SaramS,
here are the cows in whose quest thou art
running down to the ends of Divf^ and
it also appears from verses 10 and 11 that
the Panis were on the outskirts of the Aryan
•country at the time, and therefore Sarama
advised them, “O Pa^is, remove yourselves
further hence.’’® Moreover, the Bevf-
BhSgavata distinctly states that the Pa^MS
lived in the sixth sphere called RasStala.®

1 JBBRAS., vol. XX, pp. 347, 248 — Thm

Interesting Vedic Hymns by RajaraW : ImU gam
Sarame ya aichha pari Divo antana subhage
pAtanti " " ■ , /i. , ,

2 XX, p. 246. : . '

3 Devl-Bhagavata.pt: - ; i

TtAS^TALA OR THE UNBER-WORLD 59

It is often naeiitloned thRt otie of tlieir
leaders was Sflsi^a, and he is described by
Df. Macdonell as a “hisser’’ or “soofclior,**^
that is, he possessed all the characteristics
of a NSga or serpent which hisses awd
throws ottt flames from its mouth as des-
cribed in Buddhist works. * Ketti, another
leader, is well known to have had the form
•of a snake, The leaders of the Fa^ds, there-*
fore, were Nlfcgas. the Fa^iis Were constant-
ly at war with the Aryans, not because
the priestly class of the latter stole their
cows, as it has been said,^ but because the
Fanis themselves Stole the cows of the
Aryans, whmh to the a^icultural pOopfo
formed the most vatoble property. Had
they been Aryan thOthselybs, dmuld

I Dr. MacdonelPs History of Sanskrit Litera-
iur&i P* 1^4*

% Yuan Chwan^s Trdbds in India^

vok t, pi i|2^; Vinotya Pita^, vol. I,’ pp. 24-35 ;
SurSp$na*-/3taka in CowelPS Jotahay vot I* p. 206,

3 ' 13.

6o RASITALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

not liave certainly done so. It has been
further stated that the Pattis tended cows
and horses, and were traders.^ The Scythia
tribes were nomadic hordes ; they did not
lire in houses and towns®, and what Hero-
dotus says regarding the Massagetse applies-
to the Pa^is also that “they sow no grain,
but live on their herds and on fish, of which
there is great plenty in the Araxes. Milk
is what they chiefly drink,”® The Scythio
tribes knew the art of getting increased milk
by artificial means and the mares* milk
constituted their chief article of food^. By
the mistaken application of the Aryan root
T(Mia to the Turanian word Pcewi, it has
been sought to deduce that the Pattis were
traders in the modern signification of the
word, and to evolve the word Vmiih out of

I Vaisj^a-kan^a, p. 8.

$ I, p. 109 jYiile^

Mamo 2 S 2 ,

4 Herodotus y bk. I V, 2 in vol. 1 , p. 387.

rasatala or the under-world 6e

the Turanian word Poswi, though we can
understand that from the Aryan roofc
the Aryan word V(Miik is derived. Hille-
brandfc says that by Paijis ‘*a real tribe is
meant, the Parnians of Strabo, and that
they were associated with the Dahse (DSaa)^.
According to Strabo, the Parijis were a
nomadic tribe which lived on the bank of the
Oohus, a tributary of the Oxus, and belonged
to the well known tribe of Scythians called
^^Dahse Soythse*' after whose name Central
Asia was called Bahinam jDahhyunSimy “the
country of the Dahse”®. ParLi, therefore, is
evidently a corruption like all Sanskrit
names of Nagas, of the Turanian word Parni
or its variant Pani. Mr. Vasu with a glow
of patriotic feeling exults over the fact that

1 Vedic Index of Names and Subfects^ vol. I,

$S 7 > 359» 472 ; J^g-Veda, vii, 6, 3, where Panis

and Dasyus are mentioned together.

2 Hamilton and FalconePs Sirabo, bk. Xt, ch.
vii, l; ch. viii, 2 ; ch. ix, 2 ; Farvardtn Vast
(Xril), 144- in 5. B, A, vol. xxm.

62 RASlT^A OR THE UNDER-WORX.D

the VRo^iks went from ludia to Syria and
founded a colony in Phoenicia whidbi shed
such brilliant Instnre upon Assyria, Babylon,
Greece, etc. by its cmlisation^. But JBCero-
dotiusi jsays* “This nation (the Phoenicians),
^according to their own account, dwelt
anciently upon the Erythraean Sea, but,
crossing thence, fixed themselves on the sea-
coast of Syria, where they still inhabit.
This part of Syria, and all the region
extending from hence to Egypt, is known
by the nam e of Palestine’' ^ . The Bncyclo-
pcedia BritanmcOb also says that they origin-
ally lived on the Erythraean Sea and they
settled along the Syrian coast. It further
states, <‘the Phoenicians were an early
offshoot from the Semitic stock, and belong-
ed to the Canaanite branch of it.... They
called themselves Cauaanites and their land
Gane.an ; such is their name in the Amarna

t ' H* ' ■ ■ ' ''

, i 2 iRawfinson’s bk, VH, ch. % m

vol. ii, p. 153. , >

RASITALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD 65

tablets, Kinahhi and Kinalini^.’’ It
therefore clear that the Phoenieians lived
on the Erythraean Sea. which by no dint
of argument can be construed to mean India
or any part of India ; it meant either the
Bed Sea or the Persian GulP, u.sually the
latter. They belonged to the Semitic stock
and to the Canaanite branch of it, and their
language is called Northern Semitic'^. Hence
the ^*Fonik'’ (Phoenicians) were not an
offshoot of the Panis of the Bg-Veda, who
were Turanians, nor of the Vaniks of India,
who are Aryans. It is possible that like
other Scythic tribes, the Panis might have

1 Encydopmdia Britannica (iithed.), voL
P* 449 *

2 McCrindle’s Commerce and N'&m^edion of
the Erythrmafi Sea, pp. i, 209 note, ^almala-dvlpa
or Chaldia (or Assyria), according to the Varaha
Purana (cb. 89) was bounded by Ghrta Samudra
m Sea of Ghrta (or clarified butter) : Ghrta Sea is*’
a Corruption of Erythraean Sea or Sea of Erythras,

3 Macdonelhs History of Sanskrit LiUpOktum,

p. 16. ' ^

.64 rasatala or the under-world

invaded India and founded settlements in the
Panjab and other places, but that does not
prove that they were the original inhabitants
of India, as it has been sought to make out. ^
Mr. Vasu’s statement that the word Pani
(cheese) is derived from the name of the
Panis^ is as absurd as the word dahi (curd)
is derived from that of the Dahse, to which
tribe the Paonis belonged. The word Phmfi,
and not the word Phanik (Ponik^), is
derived from the word Patyi^ and Phaifl
means a Naga as the Huns were called in
ancient times, and the Pa^iis lived in
Basatala or the valley of the Jaxartes.

It will be seen therefore that all the
generic names of serpents have been derived
mostly from the tribal or generic names
•of the Huns. Though the words NSga,

1 Vaisya-ka^^da, pp, 14, 19,

2 Vai^yorka^af p, 22. Panir is a Persian
word, though derived from the common Sanskrit
words (Fayas “milk) and iVi?V (nira« water)
meaning milk without water.

RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD 65

XJraga, Sarpa, Ahi, etc. appear to be very

Names of
serpents in
Sanskrit
were borrow-
ed mostly
from the
Turanian
language.

common words in Sanskrit,
they were originally non-
Aryan words absorbed in the
Sanskrit language long before
grammar as a science came into
existence in its present form.
The sly, deceitful and treacher-

ous character of the barbarous hordes of

Huns, who frequently attacked and subjected
the Aryans to cruelties and oppressions in
those very remote times when they were
living in Ariana, must have led the latter to
apply their names to the serpents which
resembled them in character and nature of

their work^. There cannot be any doubt
that the original conception about these
barbarous hordes was such, though by the
lapse of time these Hunnio tribes by com-
mg into frequent contact with Aryan
ciriiisation, imbibed some form of religion

I See Conolly’s Journey to the North of India,
vol, I, chs, vi-viii.

, 5 ,

66

RASXTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

from the Aryans and became their allies, for,
during the Sutra period we find the Nagas
invested with all the characters of demi-
gods, though still imagined as retaining their
ancient form of serpents, and a day called
NSga PanoamI has been set apart as being <
sacred to them^, when ManasS, the sister
of Vasuki, and other NSgas are worshipped
in various parts of India.

^akadvipa, generally kUown as Scythia,
is a geographical conception, whereas under
the name of Rasatala, the Pur^U^-s Rud
other ancient Hindu works give
an ethnological description of
the same region. Herodotus
and Strabo, under the compre-
hensive nSme of Scythians, in-
cluded in it all the Hunhic tribes kfiown as
Mongolic or Turkic^. The Persians Use

Spikadvipa
is the geo-
graphical
name of
Rasatala.

1 Asvalayana Grhya Sutra, iii, 4, I j ' Vedic
Index of Names andBubjeets, vol. I, p. 440 ; Varaha
P., ch. 24.

2 Max Miiller’s Science of Language, voi. Ip

RASXTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD 67

the word Saha for the Scythians through-
out their inscriptions^. The Indo-A.ryans
also use the word ^aka as a general name
for the- Scythians and the Huns ; while
describing ^akadvlpa they call its inhabitants
Sakas, and while describing "Rasatala they
call them Nagas ; in their later works*
and inscriptions, we find that the Huns are
called ‘HuJ?.as. They were called by different
names by different nations of Europe and
Asia. They were the Scythians of the
Romans, the Sacse of the Greeks, the Epht-
alites or White Huns of the Byzantines,
and Yue-chis of the Chinese According
to the Mahabharata^ ^akadvlpa was sur-
rounded by Ksira Sagara or the Sea of
Ksira (or Inspissated milk) which is evident-

p, 361 ; Herodotus, bk. IV, 1-7 ; Strabo, bk. XI,

ch. Vi.

1 Rawlinson’s Herodotus, vol. ii, p. 146 note.

2 Raghuvamha, IV, v, 68.

3 Yaodbery^s History of Bokhara, p.i i.

4 Mahibharata, Bhlsma, ch. II,

68 RASATALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

]y a corruption of the “Sea ofShirwan^,
as the Caspian Sea was called.

It appears that Airyaua-vaejo or Iran-
vej was originally bounded on the north by
the river — Araxes or Arras, on the east
by the Turanian countries, in-
Ariana. eluding Caspium and Hyrcania
the countries of the Daityas and
DSnavas and other descend ents of Kasyapa,
and also by ^akadvlpa or Scythia— the
country of the Nagas j and on the west by
^almala-dvlpa or Ohal-dia, the Babylonian
or Assyrian empire, the country of the
Asuras or Assyrians who belonged to the
Semitic race. The Aryans were frequently
subjected to the inroads and oppressions of
barbarous races by whom they were sur-
rounded, and it is very likely that they
lived in a constant state of warfare with
their Turanian neighbours, Who robbed
them of their cattle, so necessary for

I Sir Henry Yule's 3Iarco Polo, vol. I, p, 59
note.

RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD 69

agriculture, their only means of livelihood,
as their very name Arya, meaning “one
who ploughs or tills,’* seems to indicate.
Professor Max Miiller says, “The Aryans
would seem to have chosen this name for
themselves as opposed to the nomadic races,
the Turanians, whose original name Twra>.
implies the swiftness of the horseman.”*
The Aryans, however, gradually extended
their territory, both to the north and to
the ' east, by means of conquest and brought
most of the Scythic tribes to their subjec-
tion ; and long before the Indo- Aryans
migrated to Hapta Hendu®, the Sapta-
Sindhu of the and settled in the

Panjab, their country had extended towards
the east to the north of the Hindukush up
to the sources of the Oxus and the Jaxartes.

1 Max Mulleins Science, of Language^ vol. i ,
pp. 377, 334 J S3>E.., vol. xxi, Intro., p. xxi.

2 Vendidad^ ch. t, S. B, E.., vol. iv, p. 2.

, Max MuIler^s Hymns of

the JRg- Veda, p. 2S6.

70 iusatala or the under-world

The story of Bali and Tartiana, an incarna-
tion of Visnu, which has its germ in the
Bg-Veda, where Vishn is said to have taken
three steps^, and in the Satapatha BrSh-
mana® where Yis^lh is described as a dwarf,
confirms this fact as Bali was confined in
Sutala, one of the seven spheres of RasS-
tala, under the surveillance of NSgas,*
which indicates that they had by -that time
become the allies of the Aryans and had
been brought under their civilising influ-
ence. It is also mentioned in the Bama-
lyai^a^ that from Varu^gia'a house in BasStala,
Ravana went to Balfs house and it should
be borne in mind that in the division lOf
the world Varuna had been assigned the
kingdom of the west® so Rasatala must
have been a country situated on the west.

1 B^-Veda^ 1,22, ly; ;

2: i, i, 6 ;

3 Jdarimm^a, ck, 262^
i 4 Utt^¥a^kan4a, chs. 23,

5 Hanvcm&a, ch, 262. -

RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

71

It also appears from the Sarama
that the boundary of the Aryan country
extended to the north as far as the river
Kasa or the Jaxartes, which at the time
of the invasion of Alexander the Great also
formed the boundary between the Persian
empire and the barbarous Scythian tribes^.
We can very well conceive that the
habits, manners, and customs of the Scy-
thians, at least of those who lived in the

country washed by the Oxus

Religion^ and the Jaxartes, underwent u

of Scythic -11,,,

tribes. considerable change by coming

into contact with their civilised
Aryan conquerors. In course of time these
Hunnic tribes became so much amalgamated
with the Aryans that they gave up their
nomadic habits, settled in towns, dwelt in
houses and worshipped the Aryan gods®.

1 X, 108, 5.

2 McCrindle’s Invasion of India by Alexander
ike Great^ p. 4.0 ; Strabo ^ xv, ii, 8.

3 Max Muller’s Science of Language, vqI. x,

p. 282, ‘ ^

72 RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

In very early times the religion of the
Huns was a sort of Mazdaism {Maga-
dJiarma of the Bhavisya Pura^.a that is the
religion of the Magii), or, in other words,
a form of Mithraisra, long before the advent
of Zoroaster^, the Asura B-^i Jaruthas
of the Eg'Veda^, hia full name being Zara-
thustra Spitama. It should be remarked
that though Zoroaster was born in Ragh
(modern Rae) in Media, or rather in Media
Atropatene or Azerbijan®, yet the scene of
his religious activities has principally been
placed in. Bactria, especially in the court of
V^itasa (Vishtaspa) or Gustasp, a king of the
Bactrian dynasty of Kavja between the
sixth and tenth centuries before the Chris-
tian era. Hence their subsequent religion
must have been pure Zoroastrianism. Fire

% JBBRAS., vol xxiy, ' p. 5^6^^ Burnes’
into Bb^hura^ Voi iii, p. 2284 ‘

2 Bg-Veda ’vll, I, 7 ; vii 9, 6 ; ic, 80, 3.

3 S.BM.f vdl. iv, Intro., p. xlviii ; 2 Ii.awlinson 's
Seventh Great Oriental Monarchy^ p^ 296.

RASXTALA or the under-world 73

was the symbol of the Sun, and fire was the
instrumental medium, by which offerings-
of worshippers were conveyed to heaven^
The PurSijas, therefore, describe the Sakas-
as Sun-worshippers, ^ and according to the
Bhavi^ya Pur5ija, Sun-worship was intro-
duced into India by ^amba, son of Kys^jia,
from Sskadvipa or Scythia^ and by worship-
ping the god he was cui'ed of leprosy.
It is therefore no wonder that the Hindus
should endow the Hunnic tribes in the
valley of the Oxus with semidivine power..
It i_s ^jald in the Yiyti PuraQ.a . that the
Siyn ajd. the Moon were formerly the, gods-
of the^Asuras and that now they have beeh
included among Suras or Aryan gods®;

I Agni Punma^ ch. 1 19 : —

MagU Magadhanianasya MandgUk ca dvifataya\^

. S%fyaf%pmn tu Sa^ah Kdimbdhina-

vrtali. ( 21 )..

''" 2 /\.B'kmi§ya Purai^a, Brahma, chs. 72-74
Brafmd P.^ pt I, ch. 140.

3 - V . 12:-^,:-,

74 RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORI4)

Ifc is very probable that the Avestie and
Babylonian ‘Mithra' (Mith-Ba) and the
Vedic ‘Mitra’ (Mit-Ra) and also the Aves-
tic word Athro’ the god of fire, and the
corresponding Vedio word ‘Rudra’ (Rud-Ra)
the “crying Sun" called Aditya or Siva*-
whose form is Fire which is the symbol
of ^ the Sun, (‘jSa* in Sanskrit, meaning
Fire), are the later developments of the
the Sun-god of the ancient Egyp-
tians. Siva, the later form of Rudra, has
a serpent crest like that of Ita called
IlraGus in ancient Egypt as a symbol of
ipajesty, holding a trident in his hand like
the rod of Ra ; the bull Nandi also is as
sacred to him as the bull Apis was to Ra
'(Osiris). Rudra therefore appears also to
have been originally an Asura god like the

iarabho BaMMah caiva SwyMandmndaMv ubhau,
Asur3^a0 SurSv etau Suranam s3mpratav iim,

1 ic> ; Brahim'i(i4^

•ch P.y 28, V. 20. " , ■ . , ; ,

2 I, 27,:io\; .vii'Sa, I ; h 98; 2.

RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD 75

Sun and the Moon as stated in the .Vayu
Parana, ^iva was worshipped as Hatakes-
vara Mahadeva in Patala^. But it cannot
be affirmed definitely whether the Egyp-
tian or the Chaldian oivilisation is the
earlier of the two until the exploration
at Ur and the neighbouring towns Tel-el-
Obeid and Eridu is completed. According
to the Tel-el-Amarna tablets political

marriage between Egypt and Chaldia

were of frequent occurrence, which must
have affected the religious systems of both
the countries. There is, however, no reason-
able ground for holding in the absence
of any strong evidence that Aryan civilisa-
tion was later than that of Chaldia or
Egypt, as it has been asserted by some.
The temple of the Moon at the mound of
Mugheir, which marks the site of Ur of the
‘Qhaldees (Chaldians) of the Bible, appears
to be the oldest temple in the world, epn-
taining an inscription dated 2630 b. /

I

/

76 rasitala or the under-world

a wall of the Second Dynasty of the early
Sumerian period (3600 b. o.). The Be?!-
Bhagavata says that the people of ^almala-
dvipa were worshippers of the Moon god.
Besides the temple of the Moon-god Nanna
or Sin at Ur, temple of the Sun-god Sha-
mash existed at Larsam and Sippara, and
also a temple of the Water-god Ba existed
at the mound of Abu Sharain or Eridu,
twelve miles south-west of Ur, all these
temples were in Southern Chaldia near the
Euphrates^. But the words Sin, Nanna,
and Urki, by which Moon-god is known at
Ur, ^ have no affinity with the Avestio

I Devl-Bhagavatay pt. 8, ch. ; Bhagavaiay
y, ch, 20. Maspero’s Dawn of Civilization ; Egffpt
and Chaldaa, pp. 561, 648, 660. Mr. Wooley,
who is now excavating the temple at Ur, calls it
hy the name of “The temple of Nanna, the
Moon-god”. The Sumerians were a branch of the
Turanian race. 6^., 1909, p. 418). The original
inhabitants of Assyria and Babylon were Tura-
nians,

\ 2 Maspero, op. cit., p. 654.

RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

77

Mao, or the Sanskrit Ma^ or Soma, though.'
the Ohaldian ‘Inzu' closely resembles the
Sanskrit ‘Indu'’^ neither does Shamash
resemble the Avestio Mithra or Vedic
Mitra, nor Ba the Babylonian Uru-w-na or
Vedio Varn^a. But these are questions of
comparative religion which have nob yet
been decided. MahS-rakkhita was sent to
the Yona country, and missionaries from
Tibet were also sent to convert the Tura-
nians into Buddhism ; at present the Tura-
nians of Central Asia have adopted the
faith of Islam ^ Kasyapa is said to have
been the progenitor of the gods, daityas,
danavas, serpents, beasts, birds, yak^as,
raksasas and other living beings by different
wives.® He is perhaps the same
KaSyapa’s Oolaxais, the ancestor of the
royal Scythians, as stated be-
fore. Kas'yapa had thirteen wives : Yinata

1 Maspero, PP* ^ 37 ) 638.

2 Tumour's Mahawanso, ch. xii ; Vambery’s
Bistory of Bokhara, p. 14.

3 Srsti kh„ ch* 6*

78 RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

and Tamra were the mothers of the birds;
Kadra and Surasa of the Nagas (Hiung-nu)
or serpents ; Surabhi and KrodhavasS of
the beasts ; Diti and Danu of the Daityas
and Danayas ; Ira of the trees and plants ;
Khasa of the Yaksas and Raksasas ; Arista,
of the Kinnaras and Gandharvas ; Muni
of the Munis and Apsarases, and Aditi of
the gods. We have already stated that
Garuja the son of Vinata, was also called
^almall, from the fact of his being an inhabi-
tant of Salmala-dvipa or Chal-dia, which
is very significant. His mother VinatS
was evidently an inhabitant of Salmala-
d\’Ipa and she perhaps represents the coun-
try of BiainaSjthe ancient name of Van-*^
the Vanayu of the Purauas, which now
appertains to Armenia. ‘Kadrh’ represents
Karduehi or Kurdistan, a country situated
on the eastern side of the Tigris* Many of
the Arabs still believe that the Kurds are
Turanians, though they are now all Maho-
medans. In fact, the Mahabharata places
the whole scene jof the quarrel between

RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD 7 ^

Vinafca and KadrU on the western side of
the Caspian Sea. Tamra, the mother of
the birds, used metaphorically to denote
some Turanian tribes distinguished for the^
fleetness of their horses, represents Tham-
ara, an ancient town on the Tigris in
Mesopotamia on the present site of Kufc-el-
Araara^. Surabhi, the mother of the cattle,;
that is, of those nomadic tribes whioh^
tended cattle, sheep and horses and lived
on their milk, represents the country of the
Khorasrai or Kharism, modern Khiva, on.
the north-eastern side of the Caspian Sea.
Krodhavasa, the mother of the beasts with
sharp teeth and claws, by which is meant
those non- Aryan tribes which could attack
their enemies and defend themselves from'
them when attacked represents Kardunias

I It appears that in early times Thamara was
a common name of ladies in this part of the coun-
try. A reigning queen of Georg';), even in the
l2th cetitury a. D., was named Thamara { As% Rev.,
1923, p, 6/5>

RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

or Babylonia.^ The word beast perhaps
refers to the barbarous wolf-folk race of
Num-Ma or Babylonia.^ Diti represents
the country of the Kaspii, which extended
to the river Daitya, the Avestio name of
the river Araxes of Armenia, or the modern
Aras.® Danu represents a country or
province situated on the river Udon (the
modern Kuma) on the north of Albania in
-Sarmatia which was also the country of Sara-
ma. It falls on the western side of the Cas-
pian Sea. Perhaps the Danus or Danavas
have given their name to the river Don.
Surasa represents a country situated on
river Cyrus, the modern Kur which after
the flowing through Georgia, falls on the
western side of the Caspian Sea ; it divi-

1 Passing of the Empires^ pp. 140,
141. , ,

2 H* R. HalPs Ancient History of the Near
East, p. 200.

3 Strabo, bk. xi, cb. iv^ 6 ; xiii, 6 ; xiv^ 3, 4 ;
ij, IS ; S.B.E., vol iv, pp 4, 5.

RASITALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD Si

•des Albania from Armenia. Ira represents
a country on the river Rha or the modern
Volga, which falls on the north-western side
of the Caspian Sea, She is said to have
been the mother of trees and plants, evident-
ly meaning nomadic tribes who had no
house but lived in forests and jungles.
KhasS represents a country on the Araxes
of Scythia or the Jaxartes, in fact, the
word Khasa is a corruption of Araxes.
^Arista,” the mother of the Kinnaras or
Kimmerii, who originally lived on the
Caucasus, perhaps represents the Ust XJrt
plateau between the Caspian Sea and the
Sea of Aral. The word Arista is a transposi-
tion and corruption of the word Ust Urt,
evidently a variation of TTra tfr^u meaning
a highland”.'^ Muni, the mother of the
Munis and Apsarasas, represents the
country of Mannai, called also Mannu,
which formerly did not appertain to the

I BHcjfdopmdia of Religion and Ethics, vol.
I, p. s- w Armenia,

' 6 ' ' . b"- b ' ;

8|2 rasitala or the under-world

kingdom of Van or Armenia. Mannai was
situated on the northern and eastern sides
of Lake Urutoiah, the ancient name of
which Was Kapauta or Spauta Lake
(sam), which formerly appertained to
Armenia. The inhabitants of the country
were called Mannai or Minni^, the Munis of
the Padma PuraQ.a ; and perhaps the word
Apsaras is an abbreviation or corruption
of Spauta Sara as probably the female
inhabitants of Mannai were called. The
name of Aditi, the mother of the Aryan
gods Aditya, etc.,*^ is a negative term used
in contradistinction to Diti, the mother of
the Daityas,; and Aditi was designed as a

1 Passing of the Empires, pp* 55,
6i, 820.

2 The word is not derived from ;

see Varaha P., ch. 26 ; being Aditya^s mother
she was perhaps called Aditi. Prpf. Max Miiller
also says, ‘Aditi is not a prominent deity in the
yeda. She is celebrated rather in her sons the
Adityas than in her own person*’ {^g~Veda S4rn>--
hita, vol. I, p. 231}. _

RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WPRLD 83

motlier of the gods, because Aditya or
Mifchra, the Sun, as also the Moon were, as
stated before, non- Aryan gods accepted as
gods by the Aryans. Aditi, however, does
not represent any country. It will
observed therefore that most of the tribes,
which belonged to the Turanian race, dwelt
originally on the western side of the Caspian
Sea, and that almost all the names of Kasya-
pa’s wives represent the countries or their
principal features, specially the rivers of the
countries in which they lived. It will be
borne in mind that these were noma-t
die tribes and dwelt on the banks of rivers
for watering their cattle and for catching
fish which was one of their staple food.
From the story in the Mahabharata that
Garuda. represented the Su tribe and carried
his brother Arup.a from the western to
the eastern side of the Caspian Sea, it
appears that many of the Hunnio tribes, who
dwelt on the western side of the Caspian
Sea, must have migrated to its eastern side,
not only on account of the growing power

84 RASlTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

of the Semitic nations, but also for finding
food for themselves and fodder for their
cattle. In other words, they migrated
from the Atala sphere to Sutala, Vitala
and other spheres, that is, from Salmala and
Kusa-dvipas to feka-* and other dvlpas or
divisions of Central Asia. We do not know
whether the Chaldian theogony is older
than that of the Aryans, but it seems that
the conception of Prajapati Daksa, whose
daughters were married to Kasyapa, is a
development of some of the attributes of the
Chaldian god Marodach, the son of Ba, cor-
responding to the supreme Vedic deity
Varu^a, who was entrusted by the other
gods with the creation of men and beasts. ^
The story in the MahabhSrata typifies
Turanian migration to the east of the
Caspian.

Besides the NSgaa, the other mhabitants

I See Maspbro's W Civilization, Entt

and Chaldoeay p, 5,45,

RASlTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD 85:

of Rasafcala, as it appears from the Purajias,
were Danavas, Daityas,

bhants^^or RSksasas, Yaksas, Sid-

Rasatala. clhas, G-andharvas and Kin-
naras. The Brahma^d.^ Pura^ia
also mentions the aforesaid tribes as resid-
ing on the northern side of the hTi^ada
Parvata, the Nysa of Arrian and the Paro^
panisos of Ptolemy, or the Hindukush
range. ^

The Danavas were the sons of Kasyapa
by his wife Danu. Their capital was
Hira^iyapura, which was evidently Hyrcania
near Astrabad on the south-
Danavas. eastern side of the Caspian Sea.

The Danavas were identical

with the Dauus of the Avesta. They

belonged to the Turanian race, as they were
called ^‘Ban^Rna;||^

The Daityas were the sons of Kasyapa

1 P., ch. 44.

2 Farvar^m Yfitst ‘ 38 j {S. B. E.i voU

xxiii, 189),

86 RASATALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

by his wife Diti. They appear to be
Turanians. The word Daitya is perhaps a
corruption of Dura4ka^ta men-
Daityas. tioned in the Avesta along
with the Danus or DSnavaa:
“Grant us this. 0 good, most benevolent
Ardvi Sura AnShita I that we may over-
come the assemblers of the Turanian DSnus,
Kara Asabana, and Vara Asabana and the
most mighty Dura6ka4ta, in the battles of
this world. Being the descendants of
Kasyapa, they were most probably the tribe,
now extinct, called by Strabo, Kaspii after
whom the mountain El Burz, the Dursfa-
saila of the MahSibharata, ^ on the southern
side of the Caspian Sea, was known (i. e.
by the name of Mount Kaspios.) If we are
right in our conclusion that the Daityas
were the Kaspii, then there is every reason
to hpldl^ that the word do,itycb has some

p. 71). ' ■' ^ r

2 Bhisma, ch. ii. - :

RASITALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD 87

connection with “the good river daily oi
the Vendidad, as the Araxes of Armenia was
called at the time of the Sassanides,^
because the Kaspii, according to Strabo,
lived on the banks of that river.® PrahlEda,
the son of Hira^ya-kasipu and grandson of
KaSyapa, was a Daitya, and is said to have
been the king of Patala, which indicates that
the countries on the western side of the
Caspian Sea were also included in Patala. ®
The Asuras have been considered to be
Assyrians. Long before the Aryans
emigrated to India, Ariana seems to have
formed a part of the A ssyrian
Asuras. empire which was founded by

Asshur, and the Aryans, who
remember the oppressions to which they
were subjected, attached an odium to their
name and associated with it all that is

I S, vol, iv, pp. 4, 5,

; 2 Utrabo^ bk. XI, ch. iv, 6 ; ch. xiii, 6 j ch

3,4 ;.’arM4'.al80ch. 'ii, 15. '

3 i'V, ch. 8.

88 rasatala or the under-world

barbarous, tyrannical and cruel. ^ Asshur
was the capital of the Assyrians in 1820
B. 0,, and Asshur was the name of their
national deity. Rev. K. M. Banerjea says
that the word ‘Asura’ was both an ethnic
appellative for the Assyrian nation and also
a denominational epithet for the followers
of Ahura Mazda. ** In the early hymns of
the B)g-Vecla^ the term was applied to
Varu^a as a supreme deity and not as an
enemy of the gods. The Asura Bala was
an Assyrian, and he has been identified with
Bel or Belus, the successor of Nimrod^
whose lofty temple or “Citadel’' was situ-
ated in Babylon on the Euphrates.* It
should also be stated that all the three
terms Daitya, Danava and Asura are pro-

1 Two Essays as Supplements to the Aryan
Witness, pp. 20-28.

2 THd.,p.27. 3 ‘ I6id.,pp.T9*

4 p. 26 Hero^tus, bk, i, chs. 181-183 ;
Strabo, bk. xvi, cW,]!. i Bhaga0aia, v. ch. 24 j,
Marshman’s Brief Siervey of History, p, 8.

RASITALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD 89

miscuously applied in the Puraijias to one of
the aforesaid non- Aryan tribes.^ But it is
very doubtful that the word asura could
have been derived from the Assyrians who
belonged to the Semitic race, as we find
that it was applied to all the Kunnio tribes
who belonged to the Turanian stock. It is
not at all likely that the ancient Aryans,
who ever in those early times distinguished
themselves by their culture and civilisation,
were unable to make any distinction between
an Assyrian who belonged to the Semitic
race and a Hun who belonged to the Turanian
race. A Hun and an Assyrian must have
differed widely from each other in their
physical features, mode of dress, and
manners and customs.® Neither the word
asura was used in contradistinction to sura,
as in latter times it has been sought to make

1 Mdh.^ Van a, chs. 170 f. ; Udyoga, ch. 99;
Vayu P.i ch, 68, v. 14.

2 For the physical features and manners of
the Turks* sec Elphinstone’s History of Indiay.
p. 266 note.

-90

rasatala or the under-world

oufc, for the word asura is the same as a$sura
or asshura, the chief Assyrian deity, the
prototype, according to Rawlinson, of the
Iranian Ahura Mazda, ^ hence no negative
meaning can be attached to it, It is, how-
-ever, very probable that the word Asura, as
applied to the Turanians, originally meant
■an inhabitant of Osrushna. The ancient
country of Osrushna bordered eastwards on
Ferghana, southwards on Kesh, northwards
bn Djadj and westwards or south-westwards
'on Sogdiana, in short Osrushna was the
name of the eastern part of Transoxania, or
rather of the kingdom of Bokhara, commen-
cing east of Samarkand running up to the
Thienshan mountain., comprising the
Juzzok division which is evidently the
^’Dizek (now Djizzak)*' of Vambery, It

1 G, Eawlinson’s Fifth, Sixth, and Sevmth
Great Oidehtat Motiarchus, p* 332 ; Vambcry’s
Mistory of

2 'hvitr\€s Travels into Bokhara,

RASiTALA GR THE UNDER-WORLD 9I

was therefore a part of RasStala or the
valley of the Jaxartes. In the pre-historio
period the predatory hordes of Huns most
probably spread themsehes from this region
to diflEerent parts of Central Asia, We can
therefore very well conceive that from these
inhabitants of Osrushna or Asuras, as they
mnst have been called, their name was
extended to all the Huns of Transoxiana
■and Turkestan, and in short, to all the
people who belonged to the Turanian race.
Burnes also thinks that the lands beyond
the Jaxartes “may be safely fixed as the
cradle of Scythian, Hun and Tartar

inroad’\ Hence the Assyrians were called
‘Asura’ as they lived in Assyria, and the
Turanians were called ‘Asura’ as the original
inhabitants of Osrushna. The word Osiris
the name of the principal deity of the
Egyptians, is perhaps a form of Asuroa
The term therefore found the general
designation of all non-Aryan races and also

4 Burne’s Tramls into Bokhara^ vol. iii, p. '222.

92

RASITALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

of the worshippers of Ahura (Asura) Mazda
of Iran.

The Kaksas or Raksasas and the
Yaksas are said to he the descendants of
Kasyapa by his wife Khasa. ^ R5vai3.a, in
his expedition to RasStala, killed Vidyuj-
jihva, the husband of his sister
^urpanakha, who is mentioned
’ as a Raksasa. ^ The Raksasas
evidently derived their name from the river
Araxes, on the banks of which they origi-
nally lived. Most probably their original
name was Araksa, but like the Amardi,
who were called Mardi, a tribe which lived
on the shore of the Caspian Sea, and like the
Armenians who were called Ramanlyakas,
they were called Raksa instead of Araksa,
bj^ the elision of the initial a. They Vere
very likely the tribe called Arachoti which
lived close, to the Massagetm and the

1 Padma P.t Srsti kb., ch. J ; Khasa tu fcih^a'^
rahsamsi janayainasa kotihah,

2 Ramayana^ Uttara, ch. 23,

RASaTALA or the under-world 93

Bactrians, mentioned by Strabo.^ Aracboti
is evidently composed of Araka which is a
corruption of Araxes and ti which is a
contraction of te4e or tie4e meaning the
Huns. There can be no doubt that the
Araxes is the Jaxartes, as it flowed through
the country of the Massagetm who from
all accounts lived on the banks of the
Jaxartes.® Like the Massagetee and other
Scythic tribes the Kaksas were cannibals,®
The Raksasas are mentioned in the Avesta,
where it is said ; “Away, do I abjure the
iniquitous of every kind who act as
Rak^as act.’’^ The Raksas therefore were
a Hunnic tribe, and were Turanians and
not the aborigines of India as have been

1 Strabo^ bk, xi, ch. viii, 8 (vol. ii, p. 248).

2 Ibid.^ bk. xi, ch. viii, 6 (vol. ii, p. 247)
Herodotus^ bk. I, ch. 201 ; see also Sacred Books
of the Bast, vol. iv, p. 3 ; Tod’s Rajasthan, vol. I,
c b . vi .

3 Hamilton and Falconer’s Strabo, vol. I, pp,
299^464.

4 Kzxw^ Xii in S,B.E>, vol. xxxi, p. 249.

94 KASaTALA or the under-woio^d

supposed by souie writers. The Yak^aa-
were a tribe of Kaksas. Eava^a, the king
of the Kaksas, was a step-brother of
Kubera, the king of the Yaksas. ^ The-
Yaksas apparently derived their name from
the Yaxartes (Jaxarfces), on the banks
of which they lived with the Rak^as. The
Buddhist stories of Harita-yak^iflil, who
devoured the children of Eajagrha, and
of Vakula-yak^a show that the Yak§as
were also cannibals.® They were prover-
bially black, which indicates that they were
the “black or sun-burnt .Huns of the
Horth.”® In the Indian folk-lore the Yak§as
are represented as the guardians of buried
treasures like the ‘Leprechauns’* with
their pot of gold in the fairy tales of Europe.

1 Rmmya%a, Uttara, ch. 1.3, and see also

ehv 4 for the origination of the Rakqa and

Sakm. ' - „ ; ; \

2 See l-tsingy bk. i, 9 * Beal’s Records of
Emstern €oudUfi&s, voh ■ I, p.; no note ; voI\

P- 191. ' ''

3 ' vol, kxiv, p. 565.

RASXTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

Siddhas.

The Siddhas, who appear according to the
Brahma^da Parana^ to have lived on the
north of the Nisada or the Hindukush moun-
tain, were undoubtedly the Sy-
dracseor Oxydracm mentioned
by Megasthenes and other writers,® who lived
close to Mount Nysa, and are said to have*
been the followers of Bacchus who has been?
identified with Siva.® They lived most pro-;
bably near the source of the Oxus. Perhaps a
colony of this tribe dwelt in the Punjab near
Multan at the time of Alexander’s invasion
and were known as Sudrakas ; they were the
ally of the Malavas or Malloi of the Greeks,
The Gandharvas were not also the-
aborigines of India. They,
represent the Gandarians m-en-
tioned by Herodotus^ and perhaps Gadha of

Gandharvas.

I Brakmanda P.^ ch. 44.

.2 Strabo, bk. xv, ch. i, 8 (vol. iii, p. 76).

$ M.QQxindle’s Ancient India as described by
Megasthenes and Arrtan, ^, III not&, f

4 Rawlinson’s Herodotus, bk. vih ch. 66 i^voL
a, p. 147).

96 rasatala or the under-world

the Avesta/ and Gadha is synonymous
with Saka or Scythian, and Saka is a
synonym for “a thief who carries off cattle,”
It is remarkable that in the Behistun
inscription (516 b.c.), in the fifth year of
the reign of Darius, Gadara is mentioned
among his conquered countries. Gadara
has been considered to be the same as
Gandhara or Gandharva-desa. ® It should
be stated here that the Gandarians and the
Dadicse fought under one commander Arty-
phius, and not with the Indians under
Pharnazathres, in the army of Xerxes,®
Hence it is very probable that the Gan-
dhar^as were the Gandarian tribe of Scy-
thians. According to Eawlinson, the Gam
darians held Kabul and the mountain tract

1 S3.E,i vol, xxiii, p. i6i,

2 See my Geographical Dictionary of Ancient
and M ediaeval India^ s, v. GSndhara,

3 Serodotus,hk. Yiiychs. 6s, 66 {vol ii, pp.
I45» 147)-

RASITALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD 97

on both sides of the Kabul river as far as

the upper course of the Indus. ^

The Kinnaras appear to be the Kimmerii

of Strabo. With regard to this tribe Hero-;

dotus says : "‘The wandering Scythians once

dwelt in Asia, and warred there with the

Massagetee, but with little sue-.
Kinnaras. ,

cess ; they thereiore quitted

their homes, crossed the Araxes, and enfcerr?

ed the land Cimmeria. Tor the laud which

is now inhabited by the Scyths was formerly

the country of the Cimmerians.*’^ They

must have therefore lived on the northern

side of the Jaxartes. The sculptural re-<

presentation of a kinnara is the figure of

a bird with the face of a human beings

though it is often described as having the

shape of a man with the face of a horse,

perhaps in conformity with the idea con-

1 Rawlinson’s Great Monarchies of the
Ancient Eastern World, vol. iv, p. 20.

2 Rawlinson’s Herodotus, bk. iv, ch. xi, 33
(vol. I, p. 291),

9§ RASITALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

veyed by the term ‘kin nara/ the literal
meaning of which is “Is this a man 1” As
the kinnaras were heavenly musicians, the
figure of the bird perhaps represents their
proficiency in singing, and the face of the
horse, which represents a long face, indi-
cates their Turkish origin. The Kimmerii
originally lived on the Caucasus and they
were considered to be an almost mythical
raoe.^ They evidently afterwards lived at
the TJst Urt plateau in Kharizm, and “the
inhabitants of Kharizm formerly had the
fame of being proficients in the art of
music.”®

The names of towns, rivers, etc., men-
tioned in the Puranas confirm that Rasatala

was ^akadvipa or Scythia. In
Bhogavatl. ,

the itamayaija® we find the

names of the' following towns and places:

1 Maspero’s Passing of the. Empires^ p, 342.

2 Conolly's Journey to the North of India,
vol, I, p. 179.

3 Ratmyarta, Uttara, ch. 23,

RASaTALA or the under-world gg '

Bhogavatl, Asma, Maijimayi, Varu^ia-pura,
Bali-ala57a and K^Iroda-sagara. The town
of BhogavatX was guarded by Vasuki. The
word Bhogavatl is the Sankritised form
of BUkUdhi mentioned in the Aveata^ which
was the ancient name of Balkh, — the
Bactria of the Greeks. It was the capital
of Bactriana, which was subverted by the
Scythians in 135 b.o.,** and it was called
Um-ul-Bilad, “the mother of cities.” It
contained formerly many fine palaces and
buildings of marble, the ruins of which
existed at the time of Marco Polo in the
14th century a.d.® It is said to have been
the ornament of all Ariana.^ The opulence,
prosperity and fame of Bhogavati (Balkh)
or Bactria was due to the fact it was the

I Vendidadi ch. i {S. B. A, vo!. I, p. 2).

2r Professor E. J. Rapson's Ancient India,
p. 118.

3 Yule's Marco Polo, vol. I, p. 151.

4 Stra 3 o, 'bk. xh ch. xl

'ICO rasatala or the under-world

emporium of Asiatic commerce.^ Baotria,
according to Strabo, was also called Zari-
aspa, and it stood upon a river of the
same name which emptied itself into the
river Oxus,^ and the river was evidently
called Bhogavatl, the river Bactrus of
Curtius, from the famous town situated
upon it,® Burnes thinks that Zariaspa
is a corruption Shahr-i-Sabz (Kesh) in the
kingdom of Bokhara, the birth-place of
Nadir Shah.^ Bhogavatl is also called
Patalapura,® as it was the capital of the
province of PatSla. It is stated in the
Mahabharata® that ^esa Naga, who re-
presents “Sse” of Sogdiana, resided at this
place. Patala, therefore, as a province,

1 Hamilton and Falconer’s SiradO) vol. I, p.
23, note 2.

2 Sirado, bk. xi, ch. xi, 8.

, 3 Burnes’ Travels into ^okhfira, vol. ii, p. 211.

4 Ibid., vol. iii, p. 6.

5 Udyoga^ ch. 98.

6 Ibid., ch. 102,

RASATALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD lOr

^oiDprised both Bactriaua and Sogdiana,
the river Oxus flowing between them.
Strabo also says that the Sacse occupied
Bactriana and Sogdiana/ as stated before.
Burnes says, “Balkh boasts an antiquity
beyond most other cities in the globe” and
that its ruins extend over a circuit of about
twenty miles. ^

The town of Asma is the same as
Aksu, the Oxiana of the Greeks. It was the
head-quarters of the province
ASma. QP Aksu, situated

between the river Oxus and its tributary
called Vaksh or Aksu, the Ochus of Strabo,-
in the country of Sogdiana.® The river
Oxus, which is the Okos of the Greeks,
formed the boundary between Bactriana
and Sogdiana. It derived its name from

f Strabo, bk. xi, ch. viii, 4 ; Hamilton and
Falconer*s Strabo, vol ii, pp. 246, 240 note.

2 Burnes’ Travels into Bokhara, vol. ii, p. 204.

3 Vambery’s History of Bokhara, Intro.;, p.

xxii, notcT. ^ .

102

kasatala or the under-world

its tributary, the Vaksh or Aksu,^ evidently
called As in a by the Aryans, and therefore
in the Bg Veda^ the Oxus is called Asman-
vatl from its tributary, just as it is called
Bhogavatl GrangS in the Puraijas,® frona
its tributary called Bhogavatl or Bakhdhi
river, the Bactrus of Quintus Curtius,^ on
which Bakhdl or Balkh is situated. The
river Aksu (Vaksh) is the Vaksu of the
Matsya Puraija/ Vaipksu of the Bhaga-
vata,® Oaksu of the Brahmap.da PurS^ia,
Iksu of the Visnu Pura^ia,® all these names
being some forms or variants of Aksu.
Asma was the capital of Sogdiana, which

1 Idid.i Intro., p. xxii, note l ; Dr. Modi’s
Ancient Patalzd>uira in JBERAS., vol, xxiv, p. 520,

2 Rg-Vedat x, 53-8.

3 Brhad-dharma P., Madhya, ch, 22, v. 50.

4 Burnes’ Travels into Bokhara^ vol. ii, p. 311.

5 Matsya P,, ch, loi, quoted in the Babdch
kalpadruma, s^v. nad%,

6 Bhlgavatci, v, ch. 17.

, 7 Btahma'i^a P.t ch, $1,

8 Visnu P., ii, ch. iv.

rasatala or the under-world 103

was Rasatala proper, being situated in the
basin between the Jaxartes (the Rasa of
the Rg-Veda) and the Oxus, and Rasatala
is the same as Patala. The name of
Patalapura was originally applied to Asma,
as it is said in the Vamana PurSija ^
that “A^maka is the foremost city of
Patala,’’ and there cannot be the slightest
doubt that the seat of government was
afterwards removed to Bhogavati (Bakhdhi)
or Balkh which has since been called
Patalapura, for we do not hear of the
name of Markanda or modern Samarkand,
which was destroyed by Alexander the
Great in the 4 th century b. c.^ in any of
the ancient works of the Hindus. Asma
evidently existed before Markanda became
the capital of Sogdiana. Though the
Mahabharata® does not mention the name
of A^ma, yet it appears from a chapter

1 Vamana P.^ ch. 10, v. 56.

2 StrabOt bk, xi, ch, xi, 4.

3 Udyoga, ch. 98. ■ ^

i04 RASITALA OR THE UHDER-WORU)

of the Udyoga Parva that it refers to it
by the name of Patala-pura, which does
not evidently mean Bhogavati, as the latter
is mentioned elsewhere as a town dij 9 :erent
from Patalapura.^ It says that all the
Brahmins of Patala were devoted to the
performance of Go-vrata or the rites rela-
ting to Go or cow. It should be stated
that the ancient names of Sogdiana appear
to have been ^^Gau” and “Sughda”, and it
was the second of the sixteen localities
Created by Ahura Mazda. ^ The words
f'Sughda,” “Sogd’^ and Sogdian were perhaps
considered to have been the growth upon
the word Gau or perhaps variants of the
word sughur which in Turkish means couo.^
It is also related in the Vendidad^ that
Angra Maiuyu, .the evil spirit, thereupon
counter-created the fly called ‘Skaitya^

1 Ibid.i Udyoga, chs. 98, T02.

2 Yd,mhtTy*^ ffirnff tf Birkhara, p. 5;

3 Barnes’ Travels iniQ Bokhara, vol. iib p. 2i6.

4 Vendidad, ch. i \ii'S\B,E, vol. iv; pp. 5, 6.

RASaTALA 6R’ TilE UNDER-WORLD lO^

which brings death to ox and cattle. Hence
it will be remarked that Oo-vrata is men-
tioned in connection with Patala in conform-
ity only with its name of Gau which means
a cow. It is also mentioned that near
PStalapura, fire is continually burning.^
This, of course, refers to the spring of oil
which according to Strabo^ existed near
the river Qchus which is identical with the
river Vakhsh, or Aksn and it appears also
that there are still petroleum wells in
the country around Samarkand and Fergh-
ana, the capital of which is Kliokand.®
All these circumstances show that Patala-
pura of the Mahabharata was Asma, the
capital of Sogdiana. Asma was inhabited
by the daityas called KSlakeyas. The
K.Slakeyas were the Kara-Asavana of the
Avesta mentioned with the “Turanian
Danus” (DSlnavas) and ‘'the most mighty

ifM./Udyoga, ch. gSi !

» " At ' SifabOi bk. xi, ch. xi, 5.

3 Conte^pomry

I06 RASaTALA or the under-world

Duraekaeta” (Daitya) who were the enemies
of the Aryans* The word Asma means
a stone and the word Asdbana means
^one who kills with a stone/ the sling
being, as it seems, the favourite weapon of
the Danus (Yast, xiii, 38)^. Hence
Asabana was a descriptive epithet of
Kara, the Sanskritised form of which is
Kala, both the words meaning black, and
there can be no doubt that from Asavana
the name of the town Asma was derived.
The word Kalakeya is a pleonastic and
derivative form of Kala or Kara, These
Kara-Asavanas or Kalakeyas were evidently
Kara-niru which is another name for the
Hiung-nu or Huns.^ It is curious that
in the ancient map of Sogdiana there is a
town by the name of Petra Sogdiana which
means the same thing as Asma, the word
Petra meaning stone ; it was situated on

1 Iban Vast (v) 73, vol. xxiii, p. 71),

2 Beal’s Records of the Western Countries,
vol. I, pp. 20 n ; 37n.

RASaTALA or the under-world 107

the north of Oxiana, It should also be
remarked that the Mahabharata^ in connec-
tion with another tribe of Huns named
NivSta-Kavaca relates that they were quite
adepts in ‘raining down : stones unseen
upon their enemies.’ This evidently means
that the Daityas or the Huns, as a class,
were expert sling-throwers. The BhSga-
vata® distinctly says that the NivSta-
Kavachas and other Kalakeyas lived in
the sphere called RasStala. The deriva-
tion of the word Patala as given in the
Mahabharata^ seems to be based on this
idea. It says that Pata means fall and
Alam means great •, therefore the word
Patala means a “great fall,” and the
Mahabharata interprets this as the melting
of the Moon and other aqueous bodies
in the shape of rain by the sound produced
by Vedio students when chanting the Vedic

r Vana, chs. 170, 171.

2 Bkagavata, v, ch. 24.

3 ilfM., Udyoga, ch. 98.

i:d8 RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD .

hymns. This is of course the esoteric
meaning of the word Patala. Bat it seems
that the ^Great fall” or “Patala” meant
great fall of stones like pattering rains
showered upon the enemies by the in-
habitants of Patala, that .is, the Epthalites
or Nephthalities, a powerful tribe of the
Huns, who lived on or about the banks
of the Jaxartes and who like other Hunnio
tribes were proficient in hurling stones
with their slings, ^aka-dvlpa is evidently
the Sanskritised form of Sog-dia or Sog^
dia-na, as ^almala-dvipa is of Chal-dia,
though the term fekadylpa was applied
to the whole region known, by the name
of Scy-thia.

• Maniinayl of Bamayeija is the modera
Maymene. It is situated to the south-west
of Balkh and to the south-east
Mammay. Mary or M^ru of the

Hindus and Meru or Maru of the Turks/

I BrhatsamMB, ch. ; i6, V. 38 * Burnes*'
Travels into Bokhara^ vol. iU. pp. 20, 31.

RASITALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

109

the capital of Margiana, — the Mrga of the
Pura^as, and about half-way between Balkh
and the river Murghab. It is twenty-two
miles from Andkhuy. The ancient town
of Nisaya or Niaa, one of the sixteen
localities created by Almra Mazda, was
situated near Mayrnene.^ The city of
Maymene stands in the midst of hills and
was a place of renowned strength,® Prorn
strategical point of view it must have been
a great and natural strong-hold of the Huns
in olden times before the modern ordnance
was invented, and it was renowned for the
bravery of its defenders. According to the
Kamayana, it was inhabited by the Daityas
called Nivata-Kavaca. Nivata is a corruption
of Neph-tele, or the Hephthalites, which
is one of the general names for the Huns,
and Kavaca is a corruption of Kaptchak
of Deguignes, Kiptchak of Vambery,. or
Kipeohak of Burnes. They were a wild

1 Vambery’s History oj Bokhara^ p. 5 notCv ;

2 Vambery’s Travels in Central Asia,. -g. 34Q.

no rasatala or the under-world

and warlike nomadic tribe who had no home
before the time of Jenghis Khan.^ The
word Nivata-KoiVOiCCb therefore means the
Kapchak Huns. Their original abode
appears to have been Desht-i-Kipchak, or
the “Steppes” or “Plain’’ of Xipohak, by
which is meant that portion of the Turanian
highlands which is immediately to the east
of the Caspian Sea, and it appears that
there is still a country by the name of
Kipchak which appertains to the kingdom
of Khiva. ^ The Mahabharata also says
that Arjuna conquered the Nivata-Kavacas
of DSnavapura situated on the shore of
Mahasagara or the Great Sea, by which is
evidently meant the Caspian Sea.® Vam*
bery says, “The Kiptchaks are, in my

1 Vambery’s Travels in Central Asia, p. 397.

2 Wd., p.342 • Vambery's Bistory of Bokhara,

2 Histoire des Bum, vo\* ii, p.

Ixix ; Burnes’ Travels into Bokhara, vol iii, p.

341.

3 Mbit., Varna, ch. 166. '

RASaTALA or the under-world

III

opinion, the primitive original Turkish
race,” and their discendants claim that
“Desht-i-Kiptchak as Turkestan is named in
the documents of oriental history was con-
quered and peopled by their ancestors.”^
Maymene is still inhabited by the Uzbegs®
who are mentioned to have their original
home in Desht-i-Kiptchak® ; at least they
claim their connection with the Kipt-
chaks."^ The Uzbegs are now in possession
of Transoxiana, that is the tract between
the Oxus and the Jaxarfces.®

Varuiiapura was evidently Aornos, one
of the two principal cities of
Vamgapura. jg^ctriana at the time of Alex*

ander's invasion, the ohter city being Bacfcria

1 Vambery^s Travels in Central Asia, pp. 382,

383-

2 Idid„ p. 249. »

3 Vambery’s History of Bokhara. 244, note 2. -

4 Travels in Central As hi ^4.$ i notQ.

5 Ibid., p. 367 ; Elphinstone's History of
India, pp. 264, 266.

112 RASITALA OR THE UNDE R-WORLD,

or Balkh.^ But it appears that at the
time of the Ramayaiia Varunapura was
under the dominion of the Surabhis nr
Khorasmii. ^ :

Bali-Silaya or the house of king Bali was
evidently Balkh, the ancient names of which
were B«ctria and Bakhdhi, the Bhogavatl
of the Puraj^tas. It is stated
Ball alaya. Turks about the second

century b. o. subverted the Greek kingdom
of Baotria, and erected an empire which
lasted till the middle of the sixth century
of the Christian era. The name of the
capital was changed from Brctria into
Balkh. The word Balkh is nothing but the
old Turkish word Balikh which, according
to the Turks, meant ‘the residence of the
sovereign, that is the capital.® BallUaya

1 McCrindle’s Invasion of India by Akxander
ths Greats p. 39.

2 Rmidyana, Uttara, ,cln 23 ; Rag&uvai 0 a,
h 80.

3 VamhQry’sIIisforjo/RoUaratp,iL ,

RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORED 113

has Jiot only been evolved out of the word
BaliJcJi, that is, from “the residence of a
king” into “the residence of king Bali,’’ but
the further development of the story of
Bali and Vamana, vrhich was extant during
the Vedic period, appears to have been
based upon this word at a subsequent period.
That Bali-alaya is the same as BhogavatS
appears to be confirmed by the Ramayaija.
It is related that Ravaua entered Rasatala
or Patala through a hole, and the first city
he entered was Bhogavatl, and after con-
•querihg Varu^apura, he entered Bali-alaya
or “Bali’s residence,” and came out of
Rasatala without going anywhere else
through the same hole, through which he
had entered it. ^ Balhika of the Bha-visya
Buraia ^ and of the Brhat-samhita® is the
same as Balikh or Balkh. Balhika has
been abbreviated into Bahika in the Bha-

I Ramayana, X}tt^.x2Li ch. 2^,

9 Bhavi^a Pratisarga, pt. iii, ch. 2.

3 Brhai-sarrihita, ch. i8 ;/ASB., 1838, p. 630.

8 '

114 rasatala or the under-world

visya Pura^a. ^ Bali-alaya or Bali-sadma
is synonymous with Patalapura ; it tjecana©
the: capital of Patala after the seat ‘ of
government was removed &om Asma olr
Aksu., Balkh formerly covered a distant
of five leagues ; at present only a few
heaps of earth mark the site of ancient
Baotria.2 Baotria or Balkh,. that is, Bhoga-
yatl or Bali-alaya, is situated in the country
palled Tu-ho-lo. by Hiuen Tsang ; it is
Tukhara or Tusara of .the Pura^ias® and
Tokaristan of the Arab geographers.^ Toka-
ristan or Turkestan therefore was the
Sutala - sphere of the Puraigiaa, where king
Bali is said to have been kept confined..
According to tradition Zoroaster was slain
at Balkh in the holy war' between Iran

1 Bkavisya P., Pratisarga', pt. iti, ch. 3.

2 Vambery’s Travels in Central Ada, p. 233,

% Mhh.y Sabha, chi^ 31 ; Byhat-samhitay

ch. 16 , _

4 Heaps Peeards. of the , IMest&rn Countries^ voL
x,,p. 37 notCi , ■■■

RASiTALA OR THE UlSTDER-WORLD 11 $-

and Turan.^ It was one of the Haitalite
centres.^ In the middle ag'es Balkh became
the capital of Islamic civilisation and was
designated Kubbet-ul-Islam (the home of
Islam) and Omm-el-Bul-dan (the mother of
cities). ®

Besides Bhogavatl, the MahabhSrata
mentions two other cities called PatSlapura
and IIira]Q.japura and a lake
Patalapura. called Varuna-hrada in BasS-'

tala. Patalapura, as already stated, was
originally the name of Asm a and after-
wards of Balkh, which were the capitals
of Patala. Patanti-nagara of Patala, men-
tioned in the Devi Purayia,^ is evidently the
same as Asma j it was conquered by Asura
Ghora, king of Ku^a-dvlpa.

We have already shown that BSrnani-'

I Bkcyclopcedia of Religion and Bthics\ vol. I>
p.SS'A,

. Vol. xxiv, p. 567.

3 Variibery's Travels in Central Asia ^ p, 233*

4 ch. 3. ' . .

U6 RASiTALA OR THE -UNDER-WORLD

yaka was Armenia. , Bomaka of tke Brhat-

samhitS is a corruption of Bamaniyaka

and the word still exists in Erzeroum

(Arabic Arzen-el-JRoum). The province of

Van, which now appertains to it, formed

_ . , in ancient time an independent

Kamaniyaka. . . . , ,

kingdom and was known by

the name of Biainas,^ the Vanayu of the

Puranas. The Bohita Parvata of felmala-

dvlpa appears to be the Mount Ararat.

Hiranyapura is mentioned as the capital

of the Danavas called Nivata-Kavaca and

the Daityas.® It is, as we have

iranyapura. already shown, identical with

Hyrcania, an old town near Astrabad on

the south-eastern side of the Caspian Sea,

in Mazenderan, the scene of Kustom's

adventures, against the “white Devas” or

demons. The name of its king Hirap.ya-

kasipu represents the JJlaspii - who lived on

1 Maspero’s Passing of the Empires ^ P* 55.

2 IV,ch4; ’

RASiTALA OR THE UI^DE]i-WORtD

117

the shore of the Hiraiiya or the HyreaDian
Sea.

The name of Bokhara has not been
mentioned in any of the PurS^as, as it did
not become the capital of Tar-

PuskaS^ region between

the Oxus and the Jaxartes,
.**the vale, called by the Romans, Trans*
oxiana or Trans-oxania till the time of the
Samanidus, when Emir Ismail removed the
seat of his government from Marakand&,
the modern Samarkand, the capital of
Sogdia or Sogdiana, to this place which is
120 miles from Samarkand.^ The ancient
Iranian name was Jemu-ket or Jem-kot,
which was changed into the Turanian name
of Bokhara when the Turks invaded Trans^
oxania, the first invasion having taken
place, according to Sir Henry Rawlinson,
in the year 700 b. o.® Elphinstone also

u. I. Vambery’s History o^ Bokhara-, p.

xxvii, p. 66, . ,

QmrUrly Bevim.iZ^l^^,^

fl8 RASiTALA QR THE UNDER-WORLD

thinks that the Turks had settled in Trans-
oxiana long before the Christian era.^
According to Dr. Spiegel Bukhar ‘‘is even
niow the Mongolian word for a Buddhist
tempi© or a monastery.”** Bhuqhara is
the Sanskritised form of Bukhara it is
mentioned in the BsjatarailginJ ; it was
conquered by Lalitaditya, king of Kashmir,
in the 8th century a. d. Pu§kara of the
Matsya Pura^ia® is a corruption or variant
of Bhuskara. Pu^kara is mentioned in the
Harivamsa as the place where Vis^u killed
the Daitya named Madhu.^^ Perhaps
Bokhara is referred to in the Bhavi^ya
Pur%a by the name of Taittiri-nagara
or the city of Tartary. ® But the ancient
Iranian name of Jem-ket or Jern-kot (Jama-

I Elphinstone's History of India^ p. 266.

’ ^ ^ Histoiy of Mok^^^

3 Matsya F., ch. 120, p. 44.

4 ch» 2^ ; Bkam§yd F* 24,
25 (M. N. Dutt’s trans., pp. 881, 884)..

5 Bhavi^m Pratisatga’ Pawa, pt; iii.

HABIT ALA OH THE UNDER-WORLD

kot) which, according to Abulfeda, "“was
considered as the eastern end of the habit-
able world” has been preserved by the
Hindus and absorbed in their astronomical
terminology as Yamahotij signifying now
the most eastern point of the world on
the equator from the meridian of LankS.^
The ruins of Bykund (Baikuijtha ? ), one
of the most ancient cities in Turkestan^
lie about twenty miles to the south of
Bokhara which did not then exist.

Bibhavarl of the BhSgavata^ was furi
or town of Varuiia in PStala where Hira-
nyaksa was killed. It appears to be a
corruption of Baveru of the
Bibhavan. Baveru Tataka,® Bamri of the
Rg-veda^ and Bawri of the
Avesta. Baveru is the Sanskritised form

I Vambery’s History of Bokhara^ p. -2, note 2.

, a 3 ' {Capsb. ed.)j vol. vj, p. 83.

4 JASB,, 1909, p. 407 ; Veda, iv,,i9, 9-j
^ataJ>atkarBrakma'na,,mvf%,.X,^,f4,

lao rasatala or the -under-world

of Babiru or Bapilu, the ancient name of
Babylon as it appears from the Behistun
inscription,^ mentioned as Pipru in the
feda.^ From the inscription of Boghaz-
Keui it appears that the Mittanians of
Northern Mesopotamia ( which included
Babylon) worshipped Mitra and Varu^a^
who were also the gods of the Iranians and
Indo-Aryans when they lived together in
Ariana. Varup.a was the prototype of
Ahura Mazda as supposed by Professor
Meyer. ® “iZam Uru-w-na'^ of the inscrip-
tion, in the Babylonian language, means
god Varuria. As Babylon contained the
temple or “Oitader’ and the tomb of Bel
or Belus, the Bala Asura of the BhSga-
vata,^ it was situated in the sphere called

I JRAS,i vol. XV, pp. g , 1692,

Rg Veda, I, ; 1,

3 JASB,, 1909, pp. 723, 724 ; Contemporary
Review, igzi^ 'DQc., p. ^ . Strabo, bk. xi, ch.

4 BhcLgatJUtd, Y, ch> 24. -

RASiTALA Oli 'tUE UNDER-WORLD

121

Atala. Beilis was king of Babylon ; it
was he who first introduced the celebrated
Chaldian astronomy into that city. There
was trade connection between India and
Babylon, and the trade routes have been
described by Layard and Isidora of Charax.^
Babylon is situated on the Euphrates, the
iVivrti of the G-aruda Purana, and Nivrti of
•the other Puranas, which rises from the
mountain called Nephates in which it has
got its source. The Bohita mountain of
■Salmala-dvipa is perhaps the Sanskritised
form of Mount Ararat.

The rivers of Rasatala are the Oxus,
the Jaxartes and the Zarafshan. The
Oxus, which is also called
The Oxus. Amudaria {Amu being a variant
. of Aima), is the Asmanvatl of

the ?/g-veda.® .As a river of Sskadvlpa

, I Tayard’s Nin&veh and its Remains^ vol.
II, pp. 413, 414; Parthian Stations hy Isidora

of Charax, translated by Mr. Wilfred Sehoff, .

2 ^d^-Hisdai X, 53>

iS? RASITALA OR THE UNDER-WORJLD

it is called C^ksu, Vak§R, Vamksu, IkigfU
and Sucaksu in the Pnraijas, ^ all these
names being variations of Ak§u, a great
branch of the Oxus, from which the name <rf
Oxus is derived. ^ The Oxus is called the
Phogavati-gaUga and the Patala-gahgS of
' JEtasStala, the former name it has received
from a branch of the river called Bactrus on
which BakhdhI or Bhogavatl, the Bactria
of the Greeks is situated® and it is called
EatSla-gaUga as it flows through the
^‘sphere’' or province of Patala, that is, bet*
ween Bactriana and Sogdiana. The river
was held in respect by the Hindus as it
formed the principal trade-route for convey-
ing large quantities of Indian merchandise

I Their names are mentioned in Brahma^a
jP., Ch. 51 ; Matsya P., ch. loi ; BhE^Joa^a, V, ch.
17 ; Vi^nu P,, pt. II, ch. 4 j Kurma P., ch. 46.

' 2 , Modi’s ‘AAdmt m JBBRA * 5 *.,

p. $mh’‘ :

3 BfHd^ha^a Madhya, ch, 22, v. SQ »
Burnes’ ?«/(? yob iij p, r:

RASITALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD 133

to the Hyrcauian or Caspian Sea, whence
through the Cyrus they were transported
to the Buxine and the Mediterranian
hence it was called “Gahga.’' by the Hindus.
The Oxus issues from the Sarik-kul lake in
the Great Pamir, which by some authority
is identified with the Anavatapta lake of the
Buddhists, and there can be no doubt that
a branch of the river , formerly flowed into
the Caspian Sea through an ancient course
which still exists, though it now falls into
Lake Aral. ^

The Jaxartes, which is also called Jaj
(Djadj)^ and Syrdaria, is the Rasa of the
Bg-veda, the Rahgha of the Avesta^ the

I Geography of Siraio (by Hamilton and
Falconer), vol. I, p. 113 ; vol. II, p. 243 ; Bobert-
. son’s America, bk. I.

. 2 Beal’s Records of the Western Cpuntries, vol.

I, p, 12 note.

3 Vambery’s History of Bokhara, p. 8.

, 4 Pits. Keith and Macdonell’s Vedic Index of

N Ames and Subjects, vol. II, p. 2 og/; JBBRAS,,
'Vol. xxi'W '532. , ' ■

‘ri4 rasatala or the under-world

Araxes of Scythia, the Slla of the MahS*

bharata,^ perhaps the Gabhastf

The Jaxar- PurSija® and Sila of

tes,

Megasthenes. Strabo mentions
three rivers by the name of Araxes ; the
Araxes of Armenia,® the modern Aras on
the northern boundary of Media, the Araxes
of Persia,^ the modern Bend- Amir, and the
Araxes of Scythia.® The V 70 V& Jaxartes
appears to be a combination of fche words
Jaj and Araose$ (of Scythia) in order to
distinguish the latter from the Araxes of
Armenia and the Araxes of Persia* Prom
Syr-daria the Jaxartes is called SllS and
Sita, the word Syr being a corruption of
\Su-Basa^ (i e, Su-Rasa), a local name of
.the Jaxartes. It should, be stated that

/ ^ I' ifM., Bhisraa, ch. ii. 2 Vi^nu P., ii, ch. 4*

3 Geography of Strabo ^ vol. ii, p. 2 1 7.

4 Strabovvol, in, p, 1^2,

- S Ibid., vol. ii, p. 247 j Rawlinson’s Herodotus,
wol. I, p. 302. V ' .

6 1911, p. 747.

RASITALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD 1 25

Oabhasti may more properly be identified
with the Murgab or “the river of Mrga”
or Margiana in Sskadvlpa. Araxes and Basai
are different forms of the same word. The
Jaxarfces rises in the same mountains as
the Oxus, and falls into the sea of Aral.

The river Zarafshan, the ancient names
of which are Sogd and Kohik, rises in the
mountain called Fan-tau, per-
The Zaraf- haps the Phena-giri of the
Brhat-samhita^ and flowing a
little to the north of Samarkand and
Bokhara, falls into the lake called Kara-kul
also called “Dengiz” or sea by the Uzbeks.
It is called the “blessed” river, and Zaraf-
shan means “scatterer” or “distributor of
gold.”® It is the Hstaki-nadl of the Bhaga-
vata,® Hira]^vatl-nadl of the MSrka^deya

‘ I Ch. XV, V. 20.

,: ':2 yambery’s History of Bokhara^ Introduc-
tion, pp. xxxii, xxxiii ; Travels in Centrotl j^isia,, p. ;
183 iBurnts^ Travels into Bokhara, voL ii, p, 285,

3 V, oh. 34. , ,

126 RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

PurS^ia,^ and Hira^yavatl-nadl of th©
Mababharata mentioned by Fansbdlf*^
Hafakl, Hira]?.vati and Hiraj^Lyavatl-nad! all
mean the ‘^golden river.” Hafakl appears
to be a corruption of Koliik. The HSfakl-
nadi is situated in the Bi-tala “sphere** of
Basatala.® The Kohik is the Polymetus
of the Greeks, “a name imposed by
the Macedonians, as they imposed many
others, some of which wmre altogether new ;
others were deflections from the native
appellations.'*' The river is called the golden
river as it brings fertility to the soil over
which it flows and helps in the luxurious-
growth of its crops. Samarkand, which
became the capital of the great empire
founded by Timur, was called the paradis©

; %

2 4 ^M., yi, 210; see Faustolf® Indian My*
Maiogr, 'hut m M^6Ly Philma .P„

ch.. 8, the river Hairavatl is ‘mentioned. ^

■3 B/tUgav'a^a, Vy ch. 24., , : . ,

4 bk. xi, ch..xi,.5. ^ ’

R AS AT ALA OR THE UNEER-WORLD 12 f

of the world on account of its great beauty
and fertility brought about by this river.
Elphinstone also speaking of Transoxiana,:
in which Sogdiana is situated says, “while
it was in the hands of the Arabs, it seeme
not to have been surpassed in prosperity by
the richest portions of the globe/' ^ Accord-
ing to the Pura^as,^ ^iva was worshippedl
On the Hatakl-nadi or Zarafshan by the
name of Hatake^vara Mahadeva evidently
by the Nagas or Huns.

The mountain which is situated just on
the outskirt of Rasatala is called Meru im
the Ramayaija* ; and Meru,
Meru .according to the Mahabha**'

rata,^ is also the name of a
mountain of ^Skadvlpa or Scythia^ the

I Elphinstoue’s Hutory, of India, 4.th ed„ p,
264.

2: , Hwl Bhagavata, pt 8 ,. ch. 19 ; Deni jP., chs^

82 , „ 8 "^

3 Ramtya'm, Uttara, ch. 25,

4 JfM. Bhisma, ch« ii. . . .

12^ EASaTALA or the UNHER-WOilLD

Mount Meros of Arrian and Megasthenes, ^
olose to Mount Nysa or Nisadha Parvata
of the Pura^as, that is, the ParopanispB
mountain of Ptolemy, which is evidently a
oorruption of Parvata Nisadha. It is there-:
fore the Hindukush range.

The ^yama-giri is also mentioned as a
mountain of Sakadvipa. It is evidently
mount %amaka of the Avesta,®,
^yaraa-giri. Both ^yaraa-giri and %aimaka
mean the “Black Mountain"
and the mountain therefore is the Mustagh
mountain, which means the Black Mountain..

: Burga-saila^ of Sska-dvipa, which means
the “fort mountain,” is evidently the same
as the El-Burz which means “the Bastion
mountain,” and is situated on the southern

. ; I McCrindle’s Ancient India as described by
Megasthenes 2iad Arrian, p. 15*2, 180.

. 2 .ZamyM Vast {XIX) in S, P, Ky vol. xxiii,
p. 288, note 2 and 7 ; Vendidad, ch, I in S, JB. Eiy
vol. iv, p, 7, note 8, . . .

3 Bhi^mai ch. ii. : V ^ .

rasatala or the under-world 129

side of the Caspian Sea ; it is the Trikata

Durga-gaila
■or TrikQta
mountain.

mountain of the BhSgavata,^

It was Mount Kaspios of
the Greeks named after the
Kaspii, an extinct tribe, the
Kacehapa of the Gaja-kaochapa story of
the MahSbhSratn. Both Syama-giri and
Durga'^aila are parts of Meru Parvata.

The Ku^e^ajT'a is the Caucasus mountain^
Ku^e^aya. which is a corruption of Koh
Kosh (Kus), or the mountain
Kus of Kusa-dvlpa.“

Varuija Hrada (lake) has been correctly
identified with the Caspian Sea.® It is
mentioned both in the RamSya^a^ and
the Mahabharata® as

being situated

in

1 Bhagavaia, viii, ch, 2.

2 Vamha P., ch. 37 ; Thornton’s Gasetteer of
Countries adjacent to Jndid, .s, v.' JBmdoo Koosh,

; Mr, Shib Chandra Seal’s Arydj^tir Kdini-
msa, p*7. ^ ,

4 Ram-iyang, UtEara, ch. 23;

5 Mbh., Ud}’oga, ch. 97.

9

130 RASATALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

Rasaltala. The Caspian Sea is the Hyr"
canian Sea of Strabo,^ but
HrSr Avestic name of Hyroania

is Yehrkana. There can be no
doubt that *‘V§.ru^a” of the Varuija-Hrada
is a corruption of “YehrkSna or “VSr-
kana,”^ in other words, Varuna Hrada ie
the Hyr canian Sea ; hence Yaru^ia Hrada
could not have been derived from the name
of the god Varnna, though the legend
makes it so, forgetting its true significance.
The Caspian Sea is also called Mare Serua-
nioum or the Sea of Shir wan ^ ; Seruanicum
or Shirwan is evidently a corruption of
Hyroania, though Shirwan has been identi-
fied with Albania.^ Shirwan has been
further corrupted into Sarain, and the

r Strabo, bk. ii, ch. i, 15,

Z Vmdidad, ch. I, 12 (41) in B, A A, vol, iv,
p. 7, note 8.

3 Yule’s Marco Polo, vol. I, p. 59 note.

4 Geography of Strabo,

RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD I3I

Caspian Sea is called the Sea of Sarain.^
Ksirasagara is the Sanskritised form of the
Sea of Shirwan ; it is the Sea of Milk
caused by the milk of the Surabbi cows
(or Khoraamii), whose country Khariam
(Khiva) is situated on the north-eastern side
of the Caspian Sea. Sura-sSgara is the
Sanskritised form of the Sea of Sarain.
The Caspian Sea is also called MahasSgara
in the Pura^as. Badhu generally called
Baku on the west coast of the Caspian Sea
is perhaps the Ba^ava of the Purap.as, as
it is famous for its naphtha springs and
mud volcanoes, the “perpetual flame*^
mentioned in the MahSbharata as existing
in Varuna-hrada • it appears to have been
a place of Hindu pilgrimage and was called
MahS-jval5mukhl. ^

It should be stated here that according

1 Yule’s Marco Polo, vol. ii, p. 494.

2 Mbh,, Udyoga, ch. 97 ; McCulloch^s Geo-
graphical Dictionary s, v. Baku ; Asiatic Researches,
volt V, p. 4it

132 RASITALA OR THE UHDER-WORLD

to the ancient Hludu works, the thhn

•known world, that is, the whole of Asia^

was divided into seven Mvlpas^

each Dvipa bein surrounded
or Seven ^ °

Dvipas and by a Sagam, According to the
3even Saga- PaurSi^ic notion Sagara did
t ' not mean Sea only, but also

.the ocean, river or a lake, as Dvlpa
Apa) did not mean an island, bufc simply
a division situated between two sheets of
water. ^ The seven Dvipas are Jambu,
feka, felmala, Puskara, Kusa, Krauhea
and Plaksa ; and the seven SSgaras are
Davana (salt), Ksira (milk), Ghrba (clari-
fied butter), Iksu (sugarcane juice), Sura ^
(wine), Dadhi (curd) and Svadu-jala
(sweet water).® For Plaksa we have
Gomeda in some Puranas® and Sveta-

1 Bhaskaracarya’s Siddhanta-siromani^ Gola-
dhyaya, ch. 3^ v. 25..

2 D&v% P., ch. 3, . .

: 3 Matsya P„ ch. 12.2 ; see BrahmTim^ P,,

ch.,53, z/. 6. ,

RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD 133

dvipa in the Mahabharafca, ^ and for Svadu-
j?ila we have Jala in some works.® (1)
Jambu-dvipa or India was bounded by the
Zavaf^a (salt; Sagara or the Indian Ocean,
(.2) Ssika-dvipa or Scythia was bounded on
its two sides by the Lavaca (salt) Sagara
or the Indian Ocean and by the Sea of
K^lra^ (milk), which, as stated before, is
a corruption of the Sea of Shirwant a
name of the Caspian Sea.^ .The Caspian
Sea therefore formed its northern bound-
ary, while the Indian Ocean formed its
southern boundary. Saka-dvipa was original-
ly the Sanskritised form of Sog-dia or
Sog-dia-na on the Rasa or Jaxartes, though

1 MdJi., Bhisma, ch. I2,

2 ’ Garu^a P., Piirva kh., ch. 54, v, 6 ,

ch. 86.. We have preferred to.
adopt the names of Dvipas and Sagaras sur-:
rounding them as given in the Varaha Pura^,,
as the Puranas are contradictory on the^e points.

; 4 Sir Henry Yule’s Mareo Poky vol, 1 -, p, $9;
note^ ' - . ; ' : ■ ' , ■ -I

134 rasatala or the under-world

the terra was afterwards extended to the
whole of Scythia. (3) femala-dvipa (i, e.
the Sanskritised form of Chal-dia) had for
its boundary the Sea of ahfta^ which
is clearly a corruption of the Brythrean
Sea or the Sea of JErythras, which was
either the Red Sea or the Persian Gulf,
most probably the latter. ^ The Rohita
Parvata of ^almala-dvlpa seems to be the
Mount Ararat. Perhaps the river Vidhyti
of the Garuda Pur%a and Nivrti of the
other Puranas is the Euphrates, and the
river Vitrs^S the Tigris^® The Semitic
Asuras, that is, the Assyrians dwelt in
^Slraala-dvlpa. (4) Puskara-dvipa or Trans-

1 Varaha P„ chj 89.

2 McCrindle’s Commerce and Navigation of
the Erythrean Sea, pp. 1, 209 note. Nearchos
means by it only the Persian Gulf, see p. 222
note ; also Maspero’s Dawn of Civilisation, p, 546,

3 Garuda P., Purva kh., ch. 56, v. 7. Vitrgna
appears to mean «what assuages thirst’^ i. e. what
is fit for drinking, see Strado, bk. xi, ch. xiv, 8.

RASITALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD 1 35

oxania was bounded by the Ih^ (sugar-
cane juice) Sea.^ Iksu, however, is one of
the names of the river Oxus.^ The Matsya
Puraija® also says that the river ^It5 or
Jaxartes flowed through the country of
Puskara. Puskara*dvlpa is the Sanskritised
form of Bukhar-ia, which means the
^‘country of the Buddhist monastery*^ or
Bokhara, where ia stands for dia^ Puskara
being a corruption or variant of Bhu§kara
or Bokhara.^ Puskara-dvipa therefore
commenced from the north of the Oxus
which was the northern boundary of Sska-
dvlpa. The Turanian Asuras originally lived
in Osrushna in Puskara-dvipa.

(5) The Kusa-dvipa was bounded by the
Sea of Sura (wine) which is the Sanskritised

1 Varaha P., ch. 89.

2 Vi§nu P,, pt. ii, ch. 4.

3 Matsya P, ch. 120, v, 44. The text appears
to be corrupt ; some editions have Pulikan for
Pushkaran. cf. Alb^runHs India (Dr. Sachau’s
ed.), vol T, p. 261.

4 Rafatara'hginl, bk, iv.

1^6 RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

form of the Sea of Sarain as the Caspian
Sea was called,^ The Sea of Smain
is perhaps a corruption of the Sea of
Shinwan by which name the Caspian Sea
.was known ; or perhaps the Sea of SurS is
a eorruption of the Sea of the Surahhis or
Khorasmii, as they lived in Kharis rn close
to the Caspian Sea® : at least the northern
portion of the Caspian Sea was called
the Sea of Sura. It should be stated
here that both Surabhi and Sura (wine)
rose from the Ksira Sagara when it
was churned by the gods and Asuras.®^
It is pot likely that, “Sarain could hare
been derived from Sari, the capital of
Mezanderan, a very important trading
town, which, however, is about nine hours^
journey from the southern shoi*e of the
Caspian Sea. In the Varaha ’Purapa'®*'' Kusa-

. i Sir }iQmy'YuW$ Marcor^poh, Yol. ii, p* 494.

2 Udyoga, ch.. 109, ‘ ... . '

3 Vt§nu P., pt, I, ch. 9. , . .

4 Varaha P., ch, . . V;

RASITALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD 13/

dvipa is said to be bounded by the Sea of
Ksira, which, as stated before, is the Saus-
kritised form of Shir wan, that is the Oas-
pian Sea. Kus'a-dvipa derived its nam&
perhaps from the Kushans, a very powerful
tribe of the Huns, who were also called the
Great Yue-ohis or Haitalite Huns,^ and
w^ho lived between the Jaxartes and the
Chu rivers.® and their country was also-
called Kush an® which was included in this
dvipa or division. A section of this tribo
called the Little Yue-chi occupied Kabul,
and the famous Kaniska of Gandhara belong-
ed to this dynasty. It is however more
probable that Kusa-dvipa derived its
name from the mountain called Caucasus
which is another form or corruption of
Koh Kus or the “Mountain of Kosh^' or

1 Dr. Modi’s Early History of the Huns in

IB BRAS., vol. xxiv, p. 5.68. . . -

2 Vincent Smith’s Early History of In^ia^

3 JBBRAS,, vol, xxiy, p. -Sdp, ; ,

138 RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLB

Kusesaya mountain of the Purajgias, in-
oluded in this dvipa (division). The word
Euia-dmpa still subsists in the name of
Oircassia (Cir-Kosh-ia) and Oamasia (Koh-
kas-ia). Kusa-dvlpa appears to have been
the original home of the Daityas and
Danavas. (6) Krauhca-dvipa was bounded
by the Dadhi Sagara (Sea of Curd)^ or the
Sea of Aral which was most probably called
the Sea of J)ahae from a famous Soythio
tribe which lived on the Upper Jaxartes and
■evidently on the shore of this lake.® The
whole of Central Asia was called after their
name *‘the country of the Dahis”® The
Sea of Aral was also called Daria-i-Kharismi
•and it is stated that the Caspian Sea has
oommunication with the Sea of Aral or in
ether words, the Sea of the Inspissated Milk
eommunicates with the Sea of Curdled

1 Varaha P., ch. 88.

2 vol, xxiv, p. 548.

3 Farvardin/Yast (xiii) in SBE.) vol. xxiii ;
JBBRAS.j vol. xxiv, p. 548.,.:

RASITALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD 1 39

milk,^ The word *AraV in Turkish means
*hetween\ that is between the Jaxarfces and
the Oxus. ® Ifc is therefore a descriptiwe
name. The Krauhca-dvipa most probably
derived its name from Kuchar, Koutcha, or
Kucha which in ancient time constituted one
of the four territories of Eastern Turkestan
and an important Buddhist settlement,
situated on the great caravan route between
the East and the West.® (7) Plak^a
dvipa is also called Sveta-dvlpa^ and
Gomeda-dvipa. ® This Dvipa is called
Sweta, because the river Sweta, now
called the Swat, flowed through it and
it comprised the Swat valley known in
ancient times by the name of UdySna*

1 Vambery’s History of Bokhara^ p. 9 note,

2 Barnes’* Travels into Bokhara, vol. iii, p,
163.

3 Bower Manuscript, Introduction, p. i. j
Vincent Smith’s Early History of India, pp. 187
note 304.

4 Mbh„ Bhl§ma, ch. 12.

5 Varaha ch, 89.

140 ; KASITALA OR THE UNDER-WORED

The inhabitants of this Dvipa were wor-'
shippers of Visiju, ^ of course, in his form
of Buddha. It is called Plahipa-dvlpa aa-
it 'derived that name from a Plak§a tree,
now called Pilu tree {Sahadora Pemca). It
is recorded by Sung-yun that Buddha when
he visited TJdyana, planted there a Danta-
kSstha (tooth-stick) which grew into a lofty
tree. The Tartars called it Polu tree.®
It is called Gomeda-dvipa from the
Gomeda mountain, as the Altai Bange was-
called evidently from the Gobi desert, of
which it formed the northern boundary, and a
chain of this mountain traverse the desert
on its western side. It was bounded on one '
side by the Lavana Sdgara or the Indian
Ocean® and on another side by Svddu-jala
(sweet-water),^ which is perhaps the Bans*-
feitised-form of a river of Mongolia,.

1 Kur^ct F.t ch. 4.g. ^ ■

2 Travels of Sung-Yun in BeaVs Recotrdsof

the Western Countries, .

3 Brahmanda P. ch. 53. , 4

rasatala or the under-world 14:1

TgM being a Turkish word for river. It also
appears from the Bhagavata^ that the river
Ahgira is evidently the river Angora which
falls into the Lake Baikal in Siberia. Sveta**
dvipa contained a varqa (country) called
uUara (north) Kuru-dvipa, the corruption of
which is Kor-ia, which was situated on the
south of the Northern Ocean.® There can
be no doubt therefore that Plaksa-dvipa
comprised all the countries to the north
of India, including China, Mongolia and
a part of Siberia. Some of the PurS^as
confound Plaksa with Puskara-dvipa, The
seven principal divisions called
dvipa** in the Agni Pura^a comprised sub-
^‘Bvlpas’* or ^‘Dias/’ which meant countries^
as may be traced in Assur-ia (Ashur-dia)^
Armen-ia (Ramana® or Ramajgdyaka-dvlpa)^

1 Bhagavata, V, ch, 20. ;

2 BrahmTtrida P,, ch. 44, w. 37, 38 ; .ch. 4|,

3 Bhagaavaia, V, cli, 20, Ramc^i^aka h
poentioned as a varqa (country) in $alinala-dvlpfti

142 RASaTALA or the under-world

Sarma-tia (Sarma or Sarama-tia or dia, the
country of Sarama), Kor-ia (Kuru-dvipa),
Med-ia (Madra or Mad-dia), etc., where
“ia” stands for ‘*dia/* Asia is a corruption of
aspa (or aswa) and dvlpa {dia or ia) ; it
means the region of horses, i.e. the home

of the Turanian race, 0['ur implying the
fleetness of a horse. Similarly Arab-ia
means the country of the Arabs, Mongol-
ia the country of the Mongols. In short
Dvtpa or its corruption ^‘dia'* or *Ha’* when
applied to a ‘‘MahS-dvIpa’' meant a ‘^divi-
sion/* when applied to a Sub-“dylpa’’ in
any Maha-dvipa, meant a “country/*

It will be remarked that of the seven

Names of

are Turan-
ian words
absorbed in
the Sans-
krit lan-
guage. ;

Oxus, was

divisions into which Aiia
was divided, the Jambu-dvipa
(India) was inhabited by the
Indo-Aryans. The Sska-dvlpa,
of which the northern boun-
daries were the Caspian Sea
and the river Iksu or the
inhabited by the Iranians and

the Turanians, that is those Turanians who

rasatala or the under-world 145

had come under the influence of Indian
civilisation, and hence the Oxus was con-
sidered to be the “old boundary line bet-r
ween Iran and Turan.’*^ Sslmala-dvlpa
was inhabited by people who belonged to
the Semitic race, while the remaining four
divisions were exclusively occupied by
nations who belonged to the Turanian stock.
Excepting the name of Jjavana (salt)
Sagara which surrounded Jambu-dvipa, with
the state of which the ancient Hindus were
fully acquainted, the names of the other
six SSgaras were borrowed from the
Turanian language and absorbed in Sanskrit
and transformed into words which closely
resembled the original words in sound,,
but were quite different in meaning, as
Shirwan was changed into Kslra (milk),
(Sarain into Sura (wine), JEJrpIiras into
Qrhfta (clarified butter), Dalii into Dadhi
(curd), Oxus (Aksu) into Ihu (sugars
cane juice), and Tcha-dun into Svadu-j(xl^

I Vambery’s History of Bokhara^ p. n.

144 RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

(sweet- water). The ancient Hindus can not
possibly have believed in such absurdities
as oceans of Milk, Curd, Sugar, Cane-juice,
etc. We must give them credit for possess*
ing at least some amount of common sense*
The names were records of old nomen*
olature j they underwent changes by lapse
of time, and then ridiculous interpretations
were put on them during the dark age of
the Kali-yuga, one of the symptoms that
generally precede the downfall of a
nation.

It will be observed that notwithstand-
ing the changes that have been brought
about by the lapse of time in
Ra^Stala names of places, rivers andf

and Scy- mountains and the names of
thia. inhabitants, both in BahS*.

krit and Turanian, of Kasitala
and -Bcy^^ia, the resemblance in the corj-es*
ponding names in the two languages
is. yet remarkably striking and cannot be
considered as merely accidental. It would
not be reasonable to ' deny the iden-

RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD I4S

tity of the two countries, especially when
the inference based upon the resemblance
of names is corroborated by various other
facts and circumstances. Further researches
will clear up many obscurities which still
hang round several facts connected with
the subject, and it is hoped that some of
the hymns at least of the B»g- Veda, which
have been interpreted by Sayana and other
commentators as figurative descriptions of
Nature when her elements are at tumultuous
war or in serene repose, may be found
possible to explain by the light of traditions
of other nations who lived near the original
home of the Aryans, as expressions of feel-
ings of the human heart based upon facts
and incidents of real life. According to
Professor Weber the major portion of Bg-
Veda Samhita was composed before the
Aryan immigration into India. ^

It appears from the ancient Hindu works

I Weber’s History of Indian Literature^ p. 63,
10

146 RASITALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

Turanian or
Hunnic set^-
tlements in
India.

that even at a very remote period the
Scythic or Hunnic tribes extended their-
inroads to India in search of
food and fodder. They were a
nomadic race, and did not till or
cultivate land, but lived only
upon milk and fishes and the roots of some
trees and the half-cooked flesh of animals.
At the time of the Kamaya^a, as stated
before, we find the Massagetie or “the
Great Gate", as symbolised in Jafayu, occu-
pying Daijdakaraijya, and nearly the whole
of the Deccan was interpersed with KSk^asa
settlements. They were Turanian^, and
it is very probable that the language intro-
duced by these races formed the basis of
the “Tamulic or the language of the
Deccan," one of the four classes into which
Hrofessor Max Muller has divided the

Southern Turanian family of language, ^
The ; Hainaya:9.a also mentions a colony of

I Scie^ge of l.an^mgey yol, I> p* 3 34,

RASITALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD I47

Yaksas in the Himalaya and a tribe of
Daityas under Madhu in Madhuvana or
Mathura/ and it likewise speaks of Gan-
dharva-desa, the Gadara of the Behistun
inscription, where a tribe of Seythio Ganda-
rians must have established itself long before
the Ramaya^a was composed.^ The Hai-
haya tribe lived on the bank of the NarmadS
at the time of the Kamayana/ Tliey evi-
dently belonged to the Hunnic tribe of
Hui'he/ the ancestors of the Usbeks who
had originally settled near Khotan, Kashgar
and other places. At the time of the
Mahabharata almost the whole of the Punjab,
called Aratta, was occupied by Soythio
tribes, especially by the Bahikas.® The
Bahikas lived in the country of Madra,

1 Ramayana, Uttara, chs. 31, 74, 1

2 Ibid., Uttara, ch, 113.

3 Ibid., Uttara, ch. 36*

4 For the name, see Prof. Max Midler’s
Science of Language.

5 Mbh., Karna P., chs. 44, 45, .

r48 RASITALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

and therefore they were also called the
Madra-s. In short, according to Pa^iini and
Patahjali Bahika was another name for the
Punjab.^ It appears that Bahika is an ab-
breviation of Balhika of the Ramayaija,®
and Balhika is the Sanskritised form of
Balkh, the capital of Bactriana.® It is
therefore clear that Scythic tribes from
Bactriana occupied the Punjab at a very
remote period. It appears also that the
Suparija or Garuda tribe lived in Guzerat.
Prom the story of UlapI it appears that a
Hunnic tribe lived at . Gahgadvara or
Hardware There were Raksasa settlements
also between Vara^avata and Ekacakra,®
that is, between Mirat and Itawah •, and
also in Magadha.® These tribes belonged

1 Indian Antiquary, vol. I, p, 22.

2 Ramay ana, Ay

3 Brhat-samhita, ch. i8 1838, p. 630.

4 Adi, ch. 214. -

5 Adi, ch. 15s, 160. •

6 Sabha,, ch. 16. . .

RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD 149

to the Turanian race. Thera can be no
doubt that at the time of the MahSbharata
many Hunnie tribes inhabited various
parts of India/ and the snake-sacrifice of
Janamejaya means only a campaign of ex-
termination of the Nagas or Huns to avensje
the treacherous assassination of his father
Parlksit by a Naga of the Tokhari tribe.
It is stated that the first tribe whom
Alexander met after leaving the great con-
fluence at Hchh in Sindh, when he invaded
India in the 4th century B.O., was the
Sogdoi, whom Saint- Martin considers to be
the same as Sogdians,® that is the people of
Sogdiana or Sogdoi, the Chagzai of the
Mahomedan historians, who must have
invaded Sindh and settled there at least at
the time of the Mahabbarata,® which classi*
fies the people of Sindh with the Madrakas

1 S&^’F2iMshQ\Vs Indian Mythology, ^

2 McCrindle’s Invasion of India by Ale-xande-t
the Great,

‘3 AT^., Kar^ia P., ch. 41.

-ISO RASaTALA or the UNDER-WORLD

and other Scyfehic , tribes in their manners
and customs, and states that they are
MIecchas and irreligious, and that they are
natives of a sinful country. Sogdiana is
the modern kingdom of Bokhara, and hence
the Sogdoi of Sindh at the time of Alexander
•must have belonged to the Hunnic tribe
nailed Ephthalites, and also Haitalites, who
lived in the valley of the Oxus and whose
principal centres were Balkh, Bokhara and
other places.^ It is therefore evident
from the name of Ephthalite or Elapatra
of the Mahabharata and Buddhist works,
that their principal town was called Patala
{modern Hyderabad)^ and the whole of the

: I Dr. Modfs Early History of the Huns in
JBBRAS., vol. xxiv, pp. 562, 567.

b McCrindle’s Invasion of India by Alexander
the p. 356. Patala has also been identified

with Tatta and Minnagar : (Btirhes’ Travels into
Bokhara^ vol. I, p. 27 j SchofF’s Periplus), Min or
Ming being the name of a tribe of Usbeks.
Min is also an Indian name for the Scythians

RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD iSr

Indus Delta was called Patalene.^ The
Puraiias*^ also refer to the Scythian inhabi-
tants on the banks of the Y'amuna, Gumti and
•Nerbuda. The names of Negapatam, Uraga-
pura (modern Uraiyur or Trichinopoly),
etc. indicate ITunnic settlements in Southern
India, To an unbiassed mind many of the
arguments advanced by Dr. Spooner in
favour of the identity of the Mauryas with
the Maura vas appear to be reasonable,^
Maurava was the name of the people of
Merv (Marv), and Merv is the ancient
Margine or Marginia of Ptolemy,^ and

(McCrindle’s Commerce and Navigation of the
Erythrean Sea^ p. 109 note). ,

1 StrabOj bk. XV, ch. I, 33 ; McCrindle’s
Ancient India as described by Megasfhenes and
Arrian, p. 183 note.

2 Markandeya P., chs. 22, 23.

3 !Dr. Spooner’s Zoroastrian Period of Indictn
Plistory in JRAS,, 1915, pp. 406 f.

4 BrCtschneider's Mediceval Indian vol. ii, p.

103. , , ;; ^

152 RASilTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

there is a close resemblance in sound between
Maurya and Margine, and Merv according
to some authorities was the “cradle of the
Aryan race’\ ^ Magadha, according to Dr.
Spooner, was peopled by the Mag as or
Magians of Scythia.® According to the
Pura^as, Magas, the Magi of Strabo, formed
the priest class, while the Magadhas
the warrior class of ^akadvipa. ® The state-
ment of Dr. Spooner appears to be con-
firmed by the Mahabharata^ which says
that Prthu assigned Magadha to the
Magadhas for their residence, though the-
word “Magadhas” there mean “panegyrists”
which is the later application of the term,,
but it should be observed that the priest
of Prthu was Sukracarya, who was the
Daitya-giiru. Jarasandha, king of Magadha,

1 /RAS., 1915, p. 407.

2 3My pp. 422r2Z-

3 Kurtna P., Purva, ch. 49 ; Strabo, bk. XV,
ch. iii, 13-15.

4 Mbh., ^anti, ch. 59,

rasatala or the under-world 153,

was an Asura.^ TI10 story of uniting the
two parts of his body by a KaksasI named
Jara at his birth is a figurative way of say-
ing that he was born of a Hindu father and
a Hunnio mother. Dr. Spooner has rightly
come to the conclusion that the Sakya tribe-
of Kapilavastu, to which Buddha belonged,
originally came from Sakadvipa, as the
custom of marrying one’s own sister, as the
ancestors of the Sakyas used to do, was
prevalent among the Scythian and other non-
Aryan races, especially those who followed
the Zoroastrian religion.^ Yistaspa, king of
Bactria, married his sister Hutos, and the
ancient Egyptiaijs married their own sisters.^
The word Sahya has evidently been derived
from the word Saha. Manu^ mentions some

1 Mbh.i ^anti, ch. 340.

2 JRAS., 1915, pp. 438-40*

3 Maspero’s Dawn of Civilization^ pp. 5°, SU-

4 ffanusamkita , x, 20, 22 : —

Jhallo mdllah ca rafanyad vratym nicchivir eva ca^
patas ca karanas caiva khaso dravida eva ca. ,,

«54 'rasatala or the under-world

tribes as Fratya Kmtriyas, for the ruling
^class called ‘‘Rajanya,” who were without
the SanYhskara or sacrament of the sacerdotal
thread, signifying that they were foreign
non-Aryan “warriors,” admitted into Plindu
community, that is, they were invested with
the sacred thread after the expiry of the
prescribed period of initiation, and he men-
tions among them Jhalla, Malla, Nata,
Kara^ia, Khasa, Dravida and others. The
Jhallas were the Jhala clan of the Rajputs,
who from their original settlement in Sindh
migrated into Kathiawar (Surastra). They
gave their name to the division called
Jhalawar. The Mallas were evidently the
Mallas of Kusinagara where Buddha died,
%i4d the Natas were the Nafa (or NSya)
dan of the, Ksatriyas of Kup-dagama, a
-suburb of Vaisall, from which Mahavlra, the
founder of Jaina religion, hailed. ^ Accord-
ing to Dr. Satis Chandra Yidyabhusana

I Dr. Hoernle’s Uvasagadasao, p. 4.

RASaTALA or the under-world I5S

the Karanas were a Seythic tribe of Central
Asia and wei'e probably the inhabitants
of Khaurana of Ptolemy.^ The words
Karana and KusMa, Kwei-shwang of the
Chinese travellers, are according to Beal,
only diflPerent forms of the same word. The
Yue-chi king Kani§ka was a Kus^^a, and
his inscribed coins bear the legend of
“Kanyski Korano.” The Yue-chis were a
tribe of the Turks. ^ The Karaiias form
a well-known Hindu caste and live in
various parts of India ; they have now be-
come thoroughly Hinduised. The Karaiias
therefore were originally inhabitants of
^‘Skythia” and were ^akas. According to
Professor Monier Williams, the Khasas or
Khasias are the representatives of “wild
Tartar tribes” who marry their brothers’

I JASB., 1902, pp. 162, 163—8; C. VidyS-
'bhusQ.na.’ s Vratya and Hankar a Theories of Cdste,

‘ 2 Records of Western Countries, vol. I)

;n, 56 note 37. :

1-56 rasatala or the under-world

widows ; they were perhaps the Cossei of
Strabo. The Dravidas or Dravidian races
came from Central Asia, and their langu-
age shows that they were Turanians.^
Prof. Monier Williams calls the Dravidas-
“out-caste Ksatriyas” by which he meana
“Vratya Ksatriyas’’^ The peculiar custom
by which property of the Dravidian races,
as the Nairs, etc., of Malabar, Travancore,.
Cochin and other parts of Southern India,
devolves upon the sisters’ sons, if it be not
the survival of their ancestral custom of
marrying sisters at a remote period, indi-
cates that the type of polyandry that
prevails among the Nairs and others, is
somewhat similar to that which prevailed
among the early Semites.® Ragozin also-

1 Prof. Monier Williams’ Indian Wisdonii p.
312 note, Intro, p. xxx, note 2 ; Bukranlti, iv, 5,
.98 ; Mr. E. J. Rapson’s Ancient India^ p. 29.

2 Indian Whdomy^, %l^y VLO\& 2. ,

3 En(ycl 0 ^mdia of . JRoligion and Ethics ^ voL
yiii, 9.467.

rasitala or the under-world 157

.thinks that the Dravidians were Nagas, not
because they were Huns, but because the
.Serpent (Naga) was their symbol of the
Earth. ^ The story of Parasurama shows
that the real Ksatriyas of India were nearly
extinct at the time of the Ramayana by
^ their constant wars with the foreign in-
vaders and that the conquerers were after-
wards admitted into the Hindu community
[ -as Vratya (or spurious) Ksatriyas in the
place of those whose countries they occupied.
During the Vedic period the Vratyas were
■considered as nomads,^ which indicates that
they were Scythians ; other non-Aryan im-
migrants also settled in India. The Yrabyas
4. were not Mulattos, as the word has been
interpreted.^ On account of these Hunnic
•settlements we have - got counterparts of
.some cities and countries of Central Asia
in India, e.g. for Bokhara we have Puskara

1 Ragozin’s Vedic India, p. .308.

2 VedicIndex,vo\.\i^, 1 ^ 2 .

3 JASB., 1874, p. 354*, ■

158 RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

in Rajputana, for Balkh Balhika or Bahlka^
for Media Madra. The long residence of
the Scythic tribes in India hroughli them
into close contact with the Aryans. Hence
we find intermarriages taking place between
these two different races at the time of
the Mahaibharata. Yayati married Sarrnisthai,.
daughter of the Daitya Vrsaparvan, and
BevayanI, daughter of Sukra-^
maSiages. carya who was the priest of
the Daityas and grandson of
Hira9.yakasipu by his daughter Kavya.^
Paiidu married Madrid sister of Salya, king
of Madra, who belonged to the Scythic.
tribe of Balhika or Balkh. Bhima married,
a RaksasI, and by her he had a son named
Ghatotkaca^ ; and Arjuna married UlapI,
daijghter of a Naga.^ Kamea, king of
Mathura of the Bhqja dyuaetyj parried

1 Vaj^u Purana, ch. 65.

2 Adi, ch. 15s*

3 Idid., Adi, ch. 214.

RASITALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD I59<

Jarasandlia’s daughters,^ and Krsi^a’s grand-
son Aniruddlia married 'Osa, daughter of
Asura Bana. ^ That such marriages have
taken place between the princes and-
princesses of India with those of the HunS:
is a matter of history, A ^atavahana prince
named Gautamiputra &akar:^T, who was a
Hindu, was married to a daughter of Maha-
ksatrapa Kudradaman, who was a ^aka ;
Yasahkarna, king of Cedi, was married to a
Huna princess Ahalladevl.® Such marriages
and intercourse with Hunnio tribes must
have influenced Hindu civilisation and pro--
duced very great changes in the manners
and, customs of the ancient Hindus. Many
of the customs were modified, and many
new customs and practices, borrowed from
the Turanian races, came into existence. . It

r Harivamm, chs. 84, 90.

2 JUd., chs. 187, 188.

3 See Sir R. G. Bhandarkar’s Foreign Ek:*
ments in Hindu Population in Ind. Ant., January,,
1911, PP. iSjksr.

r60 RASiTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD

is very probable that Raksasa and GSndharva
forms of marriage were adopted by the
ancient Hindus, as the terms indicate, from
the Scythic races ; and the description of a
Gretna Green marriage of the Turks, where
the bridegroom was unable to pay the
dower fixed by the parents of the bride,
■closely tallies with that of the Raksasa form
of marriage,^ Among the Tartars of
Mongolia, though the match is arranged
by the parents of the bride, and her “price"
is settled by them, yet they make a show of
fight and offer resistance to the bridegroom
when he comes to their house to take away
the girl betrothed to him to perform the
ceremony at his own house. ® The GSndharva
form of marriage is performed simply by
exchange of garlands without any nuptial
rite. It was a sort of Morganatic marriage,

, I Biirnes^ Travels into Mokhara, vol, ihVpp,
37, 4 & I Bkagamta, x, ch. 54.

2 M. Hue’s Travels in TdHdry, Tibet and
CAina, vol. I, pp. 184, 185.

rasatala or the under-world l6l

bub the son was entitled to inherit the
father’s rank and property.

Centuries passed away from the time
when the Aryans first migrated to India to

Association composition of

of NSgas the Pura^as. By that time the

with the si ofnifi cations of the term

serpents.

Nag as and JRasatala were quite
forgotten. Nagas became merely serpents
and not Huns ; and as serpents live in holes
and consequently below the earth, Basatala
where the Huns lived, that is the valley of
the Jaxartes, came necessarily to mean
the region below the earbh or the Under-
world ; and as a logical sequence, when one
desires to go to RasStala, one must go to it
through a hole as a serpent does. It was
for this reason that the Ramayana relates
that Ravana in his expedition to RasSitala
entered it through a hole near Mount Meru,
and that Sagara’s/sons entered it through
a hole made by them at the mouth o|
the Granges. Any hole anywhere on the

It

i62 RASaTALA or the under-world

surface of the earth was good for the pur-
pose of entering BasStala. The prince
Kuvalayasva entered Patala in pursuit of a
Daitya through a hole. ^ There was a tradi*
tion that these Nagas lived near the banks
of rivers ; of course, the rivers were the
Oxus and the Jaxartes ,* this evidently led
to the idea that RasStala could also be
entered through the beds of rivers. It is
therefore that we find Akrura entering the
Naga country or RasStala through the
Yamuna, KuvalaySsva through the Gomatl
and Cyavana through the Narmada.^
According to the Buddhist writers also the
Nagas lived not only below the earth, but
also in lakes and rivers. ^ The association
of the Huns or Nagas, as they were called,
with serpents, resulted not only in changing

1 Mar ^aridey a P., ch. 21^

2 D$v^Bhagavata, iv, ch. 7.

3 Yamuna and Ghata Jatakas in CowelFs
jatahas, vol. I, p. 270 ; vol. iii, p. 174 • vol. vi, pp.
44, 80.

RASXTALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD l6$

the meaning of Hasatala from the valley
of the Jaxartes to the Under-world, where
access was only possible from the surface of
the earth through holes and. crevices, but
also in the division of the region into seven
spheres, one above the other, so that the in-
habitants thereof consisting of birds, beasts,
reptiles and demons, who were inimical to one
another, could live in peace and safety. By a
further stretch of imagination, it was conceiv-
ed that the rays of the Sun never penetrated
into Rasatala which was below the earth, but
that the whole region was illuminated by the
brilliant flashes of light emitted by the gems
which adorned the heads of the serpents.^

The real meaning of Rasatala, the situa-
tion of the region, and the character of its
Ritter's people were forgotten in time,
view of The seven JOohets or the worlds
Patala. above the earth were subse-
quently invented, analogous to the seven

I B/mgava^aiV, ch. r

i 64 rasatala or the under-world

spheres of Rasatala called “Sapta Patala
which were below the earth. This circnniS“
tance alone has served a good deal to pnt
off investigation from the right track, leav-
ing an impression behind that everything
the ancient Hindus asserted which was not
concerned with India was fictitious, espe-
cially when anything was limited to the
mystic number ‘‘seven,*’ which came to be
regarded as the halhmark of pure imagina-
tion. It was, however, Ritter only who
thought that Patala was a country in
the west and not a figment of the ima-
gination, though he did not assign to it
any definite place. He says, “Patala ia
the designation bestowed by the BrSh-
manas on all provinces in the west to-
W:atds sunsetj in antithesis to Prasiaka
(the: eastern realm) in the Granges-land :
for PWla^ is the mythological name in

I Quoted in McCrindlC^s Ancient India as
described by Megasthenes and Adrian, p. 183 note.

rasitala or the under-world 165

Sanskrit of the Under- world, and conse-
quently of the land of the west.” With
regard to the inhabitants of Patala as
Danavas, Daityas and Raksasas, Mr:
Pargiter says that the older Panraiiio
accounts treat them as men, whereas the
later Brahminical accounts as demons. ^

We have endeavoured to reclaim a lost
and forgotten country, buried in the debris
of time in the shape of traditions, legends,
fables and superstitions. Some of the
best European scholars, who consider that
some of the narratives in the Ramayaria,
the Mahabharata and the Puranas, which
embody many of the earlier traditions, as
for instance, those regarding the seven
Dvipas, the seven Sagaras, Rasatala, called
also the “seven Patalas,” etc., are “wild ideas
and absurd figments.” But they are not
to blame. The old Puranas mentioned by

I Mr. Pargiter’s Ancient Indian
TrcK^itioni pp. 13, 2(90. ; •

1 66 rasitala or the under-world

Mauu and others,^ which, contained the
accounts of the traditions, no longer exist#
yhe Puraiias, which are now extant and
which have been adopted by Brahmanas as
their religious authority, are later compila-
tions ; they were composed and redacted
when the traditions about the earliest occur-
rences had become distorted by lapse of
time. This led their authors to inter-
pret them in their own way and embellish
them according to their own imaginary
notions. Mr# Pargiter rightly observes with
regard to ancient Indian historical tradi*
tion : “It is not to be put aside as wholly
unworthy of attention, nor is it to be sum-
marily explained hyprima facie comments,’^
especially as our knowledge of the most
aneient times in India rests mainly on tradi-

I Manu-Samhita^ iii, 5 , 232 ; Chandogya Upa-
ni^ad, vii, i, 4 j Professor Monier Williams’ Indian
Wisdom, pp. 492, 493.

RASITALA OR THE UNDER-WORLD 1 6 /

tion.^ "We must avoid scepticism regarding
the historical basis upon which the tradition
is based, and at the same time we should
avoid euhemerism, as it may lead to error.
Independent evidence, if any, certainly does
much to strengthen and confirm our conolu'-
sions. Besides traditions, which in many
other cases have iiow-a-days been treated
with greater respect by science itself, and
which on many occasions serve as a clue
and guide to real facts which lie at their
basis, — the facts and circumstances adduced
as evidence, together with a comparison
of the physical features of the country and
the condition of the people of Raaatala
as described in ancient Hindu works with
those of Turkestan or Tartary (both these
names being synonymous with each other),*

I , Mr. Pargiter’s Ancient Indian Historical
Tradition, pp. 13, 14,

z Btirnes’ Travels into Bokhafa, vol. II, ppr
214, 221 : cf. pp. 287, 2p5, 297 ; vol. Ill, pp. 125,
.10 vol XXlV, p, 545. ' ' '

1 68 rasatala or the under-world

as recorded ia the Avesfca and in the work
of travellers, go a great way to establish the
identity of Rasa tala with Central Asia.
There is a strong resemblance in the names
of towns, rivers, lakes, and mountains of
Basatala with those of Turkestan, and
these resemblances could not have been
the result of accidental coincidence, as for
instance, we recognise Bhogavatl in Bakh*
dhi, Asma in Aksu, Bali-alaya in Balkh,
Mammayl in Maymeni, Bibbavarlin Baveru
or Babylon, Ramaiilyaka in Armenia,
Alamba in Albany, Iksu in Oxus, Basa in
Araxes, yarujja in Yehrkana, Meru in
Meros. There is a “golden river’* in Rasi-
tala (the Hataki) and a “golden river’* also
in Central Asia (the Zarafshan), h^he
names of the seven “spheres*' pr provinees
of Rasatala correspond with the names of
the Huns, or rather of the various sections
of the Huns, who dwelt in Scythia. All
these and other circumstances mentioned,
before could not have been the result of

rasatala or the under-world 169

mere cliance. Of course, traditions, facts
and circumstances taken singly are not strong
enough for the purpose, each of them being
a link in the long chain of circumstantial
evidence, but the cumulative ejfect of all of
them considered together makes out a
strong case in favour of that identity. Yet
there remains much that should be cleared
up, as time has distorted and transformed
the names of places and people out of
recognition, and dimmed the memory of
ancient events as recorded in the traditions
which have become susceptible of different
interpretations from different points of
view. Stripped of its grotesque verbiage,
the story of Rasatala, as given in the
Puranas, is founded upon traditional chronic
cles which again are based on a substratum
of facts. Puture researches will no doubt
throw much light upon many things that
remain obscure and explain many ^ facts
which have become blended and associated
with the remote past, especially those which

I/O rAsitala or the under-world

are connected with the original abode of
the Aryans, which, notwithstanding the
attempts of eminent scholars to elucidate
them, are yet involved in considerable
obscurity, as their conclusions on this point
do not agree ; but there can be no doubt
that the places and peoples mentioned in
ancient Hindu works, when correctly identi-
fied, will help a good deal in arriving at a
right conclusion. According to the tradi-
tions of the Turks, the earliest peopled
portions of the earth were Balkh and
Surukhs near Khorasan, ^ and according to
the Avesta the first country created was
Airyana Vaejo^ on the river Daitya, Merv^
according to some authority, was the “oradli
of the Aryan race.”® The Mahabharatai*

1 Burnes’ Travels into Bokhara^ vol. ii, p.
206 ; vol. iii, p. 44 ; see also Marshman's Brief
Survey of History, p. lo.

2 SBE., vol. iv, pp.'4, 5.

3 JRAS., 1915, p. 407.

4 UdyogEj ch. 9&.’

RASITALA OR THE UNDER WORLD I/I

also appears to place tlie first inhabited p6r-
tion of the earth in Patala or Central Asia,
as it says that the egg, from which the

/great fire is to issue for the destruction of

the world, yet remains there unhatched, im-
plying that the other egg which produced
the creatures had been hatched there before.
It has been conjectured^ by some scientists
that “Mongolia of to-day and the adjacent
territory had in ages past been the

centre of disposal of animal life to
other parts of the earth.” According to
tradition^ the original home of the Semites
and' other races was in Armenia. Much
light therefore will be thrown on this point
and other doubtful questions when the

Hindu works will be clearly understood by
future researches.

/ I See Mr. R. C. Andrews’ ..4 of the

Third Asiatic Expedition of the American Museum
of nixtuti^l History in Asia (New York), 1923-24.

2 Chambers’ Encyclopcedia^ vol, xxi, p.‘643, s.
V, Semites.

D.G.A. 80.

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